Happy New Year to everyone. Hope there aren't too many sore heads. Sue, you're very witty this morning or was it just an accident? "Pop" on over to the new thread after mentioning Ian's new grandson! Love your Gold Medal photo. Very neat shape. Think my Guzmania conifer flower might be a bit more like your first one. Wendy has 2 flowering so maybe she could post some photos.
Shirley, what a beautiful display of broms. They all look so healthy and colourful and everything looks so neat. Not a dead leaf in sight. Great job. Hopefully Wendy and I might get over to visit you sometime. Nev’s right about Neo Bold Streak x macwilliamsii. It’s very variable and I’ve had pups with all sorts of variegations. Yours is particularly attractive with the thicker variegations. I’ve got a pup of Canefire (purple) that’s a bit small yet but won’t be too long before it’s ready if you still want one. I bought it as Canefire Purple but the seller is a bit unreliable about names. I think Canefire is also very variable so I’ve kept that name on it because it’s definitely albo while I’ve got another clone that’s always variegated. And I’ve got another one called Candy Stripe that looks almost the same as the var. Canefire. Very confusing.
Ian, that was a good buy with your Tiger Tim. I’m with Sue about your first photo. My Ae gigantea hasn’t flowered yet but it’s very big, like a blanchetiana with pointier leaves. Wendy had a few problems with growing seedlings in deeper containers. They didn’t seem to get enough air but she could tell you more about it.
Trish, wish you could send some of your rain down this way. It’s very dry, hot and windy here. Tough conditions for broms. Your Vr heiroglyphica hybrid is huge and very healthy like all your broms. Thank you for the fertilizer info. It certainly seems to work well. What sort of mix do you use? Vr. Zapita is another brom that seems to have some different clones floating around. Mine is curled under like a fenestralis with redder leaves and doesn’t look as big as yours.
Wendy, hope you’re feeling a bit better this morning. Summer colds always seem more miserable than winter ones because they’re unexpected. Loved the flowers on your Aechmeas beeriana (Name change to vallerandii) and tessmannii. Maybe you could post photos. They’re stunning.
Nev, love your variegated caudatas. Very attractive flowers. They are very sun-tolerant too. Mine’s taking midday sun at the moment but hasn’t flowered yet. Wish you and Sue would stop posting photos of lovely orchids. The last thing I need is another plant addiction!
Time to go and put up a bit more shadecloth. Hello also to Jean, Bree and Colleen.
Photos are 1. Guzmania conifer for Sue. 2. Vr. Zapita for Trish 3. Canistrum triangulare 4. Aechmea Clara 5. Aechmea Dark Goddess

No sore head today which is great, hope everyone feels great today and gets to spend time in the garden with their broms.

Rain has left us now but we did get a fair bit last night which made our sleep very blissful and we were more than happy to have a sleep in this morning knowing it would be our last for a while, then when we woke I felt a tad bit hungry and craving coffee big time so I made us a huge omelette each to get us through the day and a pouched egg each for the girls, which is great for keeping their coat shiny.

No major gardening going on today other than watering indoor plants and picking up a few fallen pots and washing dirt out of some of the brom wells. I am feeling kind of lazy today apart from doing necessary house chores, picking up the odd fallen palm frond in the garden and going for the odd swim every now and then when I start to feel a bit hot. This rain has definitely steamed things up a tad with the sun out and not much cloud cover and even just hanging out washing and you break out into a sweat.

Hi Sue thanks heaps for creating new thread for Jan’ 2013. That Neo pic you chose to welcome in the NY is gorgeous.

Hi Jen yes wish we could send some of the rain your way (crossing my fingers and toes for you), the rain has left us now and has been replaced be muggy, sticky heat. The gardens looking refreshed though, the lawn is really coming back and all of my plants look like they have had a bit of a makeover, they appear happier and healthier after the good drink of rain they all got.

Jen / Sue yeah my Vr. Heiroglyphica Hybrid is of a good size and it has decided to pup for me which is great as I want to have a few more of these displayed throughout the garden as the leaf pattern is really appealing (green and lime) and I really like its long slender leaves that do well as they take a bit of a hammering outside, but I do have it growing under shade cloth so it has protection from falling debris etc.

Jen the brom mix I always use for all my bromeliads is Searles Cymbidium & Bromeliad Mix, but I also add extra Charcoal and Perlite to the mix. Normally I pour the mix into a 9 litre bucket so that it is ¾ full and then top the rest of the bucket up with equal parts of Charcoal and Perlite and then I pour the whole bucket into a huge stainless steel bowl for mixing well. I usually give all my broms a new pot and fresh new mix when I am separating pups or mature broms from one another. I have tried making my own mixes but as far as I am concerned they do not work as well as the Searles Cymbidium & Bromeliad Mix and it’s affordable at only $6.20 for 12 litres from Bunnings. I try to buy my Perlite and Charcoal in bigger bags as small bags are just as expensive I find and for a couple of dollars more you are better off buying the larger bags of each. I just can’t find the Searles Cymbidium & Bromeliad Mix for sale in larger bags which annoys me as I have looked everywhere in Townsville but had no luck, I might have to look at asking a small nursery I frequent to possibly order some in for me? Oh Jen the other thing I do when potting my broms is pour a thin layer of washed red gravel (small size) in the bottom of my pot just so the gravel covers the drainage holes, then I add my brom mix and plant my brom and then finish off with a top layer of the same gravel to cover the brom mix, I also find this secures the brom well in place and hardly every have to use any wooden supports to stabilise my broms. I use the same method with all my broms. The other good thing with the gravel top and bottom is that you lose less of the potting mix when watering and everything stays nice and clean, less splash back when watering especially when we get heavy rain. I also use larger gavel in my garden beds and the pots sit on top of this or I bury them in the ground by burying an empty pot in the ground that is slightly larger than the pot I have my brom in, then I just sit the brom pot in the empty pot which makes moving them around far more easier than digging up a pot and the ground caving in around it along with the top layer of gravel.

Yeah Jen my Vr. Zapita looks very different to yours, I luv how the leaves curl under like that. Also really like your Pic 3 of Canistrum triangulare, I have this one but it is yet to flower. I find it to be a really slow grower and mine has not pupped yet, I heard it is a very slower grower and same goes for pupping. Has your one produced any pups yet?

Back to work tomorrow sad face :( I will do my best to keep in touch with everyone during the week.

Hope you enjoy the random brom pics I took around the garden today:

Hi to anyone else looking in and anyone on the Sick List, we miss hearing from you all.

Hi all, a bit of rain this morning and then some clear sky. I wonder what the night might bring. I potted up some more seedlings about 6 months old and have to start watching some of the Bills. They are going beserk 2months old and 2"high, unbelievable.
About that Ae gigantea, I think the angle of the pic could have disguised some details.1 it has spines resembling blanchies. It has red spots on the lower outer basal leaves. It has seed pods on instead of a flower. It is basically tubular in shape more so than a blanchie but they are similar This is how I bought it on Sunday from Rockhampton on my way home. I had a look at fcbs site and the pics there are at a different stage of development so I am still resistant to change it's name as yet. I have some more pics of it tonight.
Just gotta love N gold medal.
Have a good one.
Ian
Pic 1 Ae gigantea base
Pic 2 Ae gigantea seed pods
Pic 3 Deuterochnea

Hi everyone
Sorry I didn't check in last night. As Jen said these summer colds and flus do seem worse and I know I feel like shit right now so this will be brief. I slept most of the afternoon but still feel the need for an early night tonight. I've just downloaded all my pics so:
pic 1 is ae beeriana renamed vallerandii with the infloresence growing daily (DG has spun it back round again. sorry for kinked necks)
pic 2 & 3 are an aechmea I got from a friend as a pup cause we liked the mottled look on the leaves and hadn't seen one like it before. well now it is flowering. is this fendleri? the flower looks right but the fcbs pics show a green plant which doesn't look anything like this mottled one.
pic 5 is ae tessmanii as Jen requested.
pic 4 is guzmania conifera (we think it is however we bought 1 unamed from last BSQ sale for $25 then found the other in Big W from Olive Branch the following week for $11.98)

Oops here is tessmanii as promised in last post and also ae red bands showing very red stripes on pup as compared to mum's colour. I remember there was something about this last month. And I've also included a pic of Max standing in front of the big croc statue in the park at Normanton when we travelled through there in 2010.

one last thing before bed. in the absence of Max to share the fireworks with Johnny last night he told Emily if she could stay awake long enough he would take her down the point to watch them being set off on a barge out in the bay. yep she stayed awake right up to midnight and was almost asleep on the way home in the car. Pa had to carry her upstairs and she slept on her camp stretcher in the loungeroom as a reward. I was worried about how he would cope with his first NYE fireworks without Max to share it with.

Hello everyone, another scorcher here today. I haven’t managed to get much time with my broms over the last few days, there always seems to be something else that HAS to be done. Tomorrow is shopping day and we have two granddaughters staying over tomorrow night so not much brom time likely in the next couple of days either.

I hope everyone has had a great start to their new year and hope it continues to be a good year for all.

Trish, good to hear you are getting lots of rain. Everything is starting to dry out here as it’s been hot and rather windy. I did a quick water this afternoon and one thing I noticed was that a lot of plants have been chewed and there are lots of small green grasshoppers about munching everything in their paths. I have sprayed a few things with Confidor but it doesn’t stop them until they have done quite a bit of damage, rotten little buggers.

No pups on the Vr Sunset as yet, Trish. Unfortunately I don’t have any of the broms you mention you are chasing. I would love to get hold of neos Catlans Leopard, Gespacho Jazzy, Wild Surf and Downs Autumn, just to name a few. I have seen them on eBay from time to time but haven’t managed to snag any of them. There are just so many I would love and of course, there are more and more all the time.

Gee Trish, what a great idea, putting a larger pot into the ground and then dropping broms in smaller pots into it, that’s something I have got to try. As you say, so much easier when it comes to moving them around. Love your random shots around the garden … NICE.

Ian, you have also been getting a nice bit of rain. It must be our turn soon, sounds like it’s moving south. Lucky you to have a quiet baby in the house, hope it lasts.

Sue, thanks for starting of the new thread for the new year. Love your neo Gold Medal, mine doesn’t look anywhere near that good.

Jen, thanks for the compliment on my brom house (I only post the photos that make it appear neat and tidy) and I would love to have you and Wendy come to visit some time. Yes please to the neo purple Canefire when it’s ready. Love your Vr Zapita, Canistrum Triangulare and Ae Dark Goddess, you certainly have some lovely broms in your collection.

Wendy, sorry to hear you are crook, hope you get better soon. Love the photo of Max with the croc.

Nev, hope to see you back posting tomorrow.

Well, it’s after midnight now so I don’t think I’ll go hunting for pics. I don’t have anything new anyway.

Happy New Year everyone.
I hope you all enjoy good health and lots of fun with your broms.

I have finally cleaned out all of the greenhouse now . I have mainly the smaller broms and growing pups in there now and can walk around without getting bitten by those on the floor.
All the old shabby ones and Mums with pups to be taken off are in the old epi house where I can work on them as i feel like it. .

I am pleased with the color I see on most of mine but I seem to have bought quite a few that stay green , only coloring when ready to flower.
I will have to look at more colored ones. I do like striped and spotty ones.
My vriesia flowers are getting taller by the day.
I have 2 ae. fasciatas but they have never done much.
Some of the bills are not doing anything either.
I had flowers on all the neos that were ready and plenty of color on them.
There are about 20 pups to be repotted from the mums now.

Looking at how lovely the vriesias are, I am going to devote a whole bench to them.

I have a pic for Nev when he is back on. This is the vriesia ensiformis he sent me and it has doubled in size with pups as big now.
The large vriesia I pictured on the old thread ( heiroglyphica x Red Chestnut ) is now showing a lovely reddish color on some of the outer leaves. This must be from the Red Chestnut parent. Its going to be interesting to see how it develops. I added the pic again and you can see the color on the leaf right at the back left.
Is there a name for this plant or do I just keep using the parentage ?
Enjoy your day
Jean.

Hi Everyone, Happy New Year to you all. Gee there are some stunning photos being shared, love seeing everyone's pics. I hope you all had a great Christmas with family and friends and your New Year has started well. Not quite sure where 2012 went, it seemed to absolutely whiz by, a lot happened in 2012 mind you.
It's been very hot and muggy here, and we have brought a timer for our irrigation now so that if we are out, we know they are still getting a cool down in the middle of the day which seems to be working well.
I have so many pups that need potting but like a lot of you I now really know what it's like to not want to pot them as I have next to no space to put them. I think I will have to do a bit of a sale as well to clear some out and make some space. It amazing just how many pups you get once they hit maturity, mind you some are more common and just need to find a new home and some are ones that i don't want to get rid of, so finding space for them is hardest as I know they will stay here and grow up. All my Vrieseas that got hit badly with cup rot this time last year (from a fungicide) have pupped and most of the original mums are nearly dead now, some went in the bin yesterday, and some got all the dead ugly bits trimmed off and shoved to the side as they still have another pup to go on them. But now where we had one of something we now have quite a few of it. My Vr Forrest which is still our most expensive purchase in broms, it is looking rather had-it now but has given us 3 or 4 pups so now it's time to watch them grow to maturity. But now I need to fit them all in somewhere, lol.
Well we haven't brought anything new for a while, got a few from Big W a while ago that were from Olive.
I will have a look for some photos to upload soon :)
Cheers Tash

Here is a photo of our Aechmea Tritone starting to look nice, it was such a tiny wee thing when we got it.
Then this is our newest one, Neo Jaline. It's a really nice one, very well grown by the lovely people it came from and one we are happy to add to our collection.
Last one is a nicely charred Neo Norman Bates looking more like a Tiger at the moment. Hope they all work...

good morning everyone.
I am in the car on the way home from celebrating new years at the gold Coast. I had a great time and didn't even drink to much, so was nice and clear headed for the first day of the new year.
Hubby and I hd an early morning swim, then cleaned the mess from the party at our friends so they could get up to a tidy kitchen and outdoor area. They had been up till 5am whereas we piked out early. Of course, they slept in, so we went to Sanctuary Cove and had lunch at Georges Seafood Paragon restaurant! Yummm!
I also caught up with Jen and Wendy, on a flying visit and had the grand tour of their collections.I wish I had had more time to spend, but I promise I will make the effort to get back this year for a more relaxed stroll and chat. Both collections were just amazing, Wendys for the size of her collection, and sheer numbers of pants, and Jens for the variety of well coloured and unusual Vrieseas, large cacharodon type Neos, and great colourful gardens. Stupidly, I did not get my camera out! Nevermind. I suggest if you eve get to the Brisbane area, to give them some warning and go for a visit. They both make good cuppas too!
Tash, glad you have got some pups to replace the damaed vrieseas. I remember how devastated you were at th time. Your irrigation sounds like a good idea. i have some misting on an automatic timer for when I am away, just in case the house sitter isn't good at watering. There is an art to it.
Where is Nev? Are you ok?
Hello to everyone, but must go as reception is patchy and road is bumpy!
Talk more tomorrow
Sue

hello all,
a few weeks ago I was doing some Xmas shopping & spotted broms at the Warehouse, one I liked the look of was labelled 'Tillandsia' ...
that was all it said
and even worse I had no money on me so couldn't even give it a go.
So my collection still consists of two pots of very hardy Bil. nutans.
They stayed out all winter this year as I had to move out of my house while earthquake repairs were being done.
House had to be empty so no chance for them to have their usual indoor spot.
And despite frosts, rain, wind & even snow they are still ticking along quite nicely.
One is even missing most of the potting mix as it was monstered by my new puppy, she enjoys gardening & has tipped a few things out of pots.
I have learned not to leave potted plants on the back deck where she can get them.

Hi Wendy luved the pic of Max near that big croc, what a beautiful boy, such a beautiful face and very photo genic.

Hi Ian the leaves on your Neo Fosperior are so long.

Hi Shirley sorry to hear everything is drying up you way and that nasty grasshopper are chewing on your broms, the best time I find to get rid of them is first think in the morning as they appear less active, I just rip their heads off their shoulders, I know it's not nice but it's quick rather than throwing them on the ground and squashing them which is a bit hard to do on grass because they are hard to see and normally get away especially if you are like me and need to wear glasses every now and again in the garden.

Shirley I will right you down for a pup of my Catlan's Leopard, well I think that it what it is except when I brought them they were called Neo Leopard, are the they same thing??? Anyway my mature Neo Leopard broms are yet to pup but I will keep a pup aside for you if you like. I think I have about 3 mature broms of these because I liked them that much as I really wanted to spread them around the garden, one was just not enough, you know what its like lol. Unfortunatley I do not have any of the other really want broms you mentioned but if I come across them I will let you know.

Yeah Shirley give the larger pot in smaller pot dug into the garden a go, initially its a bit of work digging but you only have to dig the one hole and then just relocate the soil elsewhere in your garden, just be careful not to undermine any raised retaining wall garden beds you may have as you would naturally displace the soil if it was in a raised retaining wall garden bed and this could cause issues down the track is it would weaken the wall. I mainly dig my pots into my low to the ground garden beds as I know it is safe to do so.

Hi Jean you won't be disappointed devoting a whole bench for vrieseas, I have devoted our whole entertainment area for them and have run out of room so some are getting shipped out into the garden.

Hi Tash nice to hear from you, sounds like you are very busy with your broms, the pics you posted are gorgeous, such intense colors and so healthy.

Hi Sue hope your were not multi-tasking driving and typing a thread at the same time LOL. I saw a lady reading a book while she was driving the other day in an 80k zone and heard similar on the news that a lady got caught reading a book doing 100+K - crazy.

Hi Dalfyre is this the first time you have visited this forum, welcome if this be the case and all the way from Christchurch, my good friends family lives in Christchurch and they are going throught the same thing with earthquake repairs. There are so many 'Tillandsia' out their for sale, I only have one that grows in my Mango Tree, I don't know it's proper name but I have heard the pet name Tillandsia's get called is 'Carnations of The Sky' and that is what I have written on my label (it gets little yellow flowers), aside that my favorite smelling flower are Carnations and if I am going to buy cut flowers they are always Carnations. Do you like any other types of Bromeliads aside from Tillandsia's?

Where are you Nev are you OK? We miss you.

Anyway time for me to head off, so much for a quick thread, I just loose track of time when I get chatting with you all or chatting with myself 'miss have a chat' I am.

More random pics attached, let me know if you want names of single shots:

Hi all, just a quick one from me tonight as we have two granddaughters (7 and 10) staying over and they have kept me on the hop all afternoon. I got them off to bed around 9:00 pm then went and fell in a heap in front of the TV. Now it’s a quick post and a cuppa then off to bed myself.

Jean, I love the vrieseas too. Mine are in a little too much shade at the moment but I will move them as soon as we extend the shadehouse. It’s way too hot here at the moment to work outside so it will probably be autumn before it’s completed.

Tash, great to hear from you. You know, I am only too happy to accommodate any broms that you don’t have room for at your place, LOL. Your neo Norman Bates looks amazing, I love the toothy ones.

Sue, sounds like you did it really tough over the new year period :o) glad you had a great time. We had a very quiet one here.

Dalfyre, good to hear from you. I am pretty sure you have posted here before. Either way, welcome to the forum or welcome back. Hope you continue to visit.

Trish, thank you so much for the offer of a pup from your neo Leopard, that would be fantastic. I’m pretty sure it’s the same as Catlans Leopard and really appreciate your offer. As for digging the larger pots into the garden beds, the majority of our garden beds that are close to the house are behind retaining walls but on one side only, more like a terrace, so I will dig the holes for the larger pots on the flat side of the garden away from the wall. We have lots of rocks here and the walls have been in place for years and are very stable.

What really annoys me is seeing young people texting while driving and it’s something we see all the time … makes me wish I was a cop sometimes. Lovely garden shots again Trish.

Hope we see Nev back posting again tomorrow.

Anyway, I will have a quick look for some pics. Pic 1 is Ae Rakete, pic 2 is neo Green Apple Golden Delicious

thanks for the welcome - I'm a regular in the tea room & posted here a few times a couple of years ago...
been a little distracted by earthquakes since then.
I like the look of so many different broms but have resisted the temptation so far as I'd hate to buy plants & have them up & die.
Knowing that at some stage we'd have to clear the house out & go live in a motel for a few weeks while they did repairs put me off adding indoor plants.
But the 'repairs' are done so now i am starting to look at what's available here.

Hi all, another hot day and I didn't feel like doing much, but when it cooled down a bit I thought that it was time to experiment a bit more. This time I tried sucessfully to collect seeds from a pineapple that was growing here. It is Ananas tricolour and had multiple heads coming off it also. The seeds are similar to apple seeds but smaller as in Pic 1.
Pic 2 will show some Neo minis growing in my mango tree. They have been there for a fair while, Aug 2011 some of my earliest plants. They seem to be doing ok considering they get the least attention of all my plants. I also have broms growing on Palms and in citrus trees.
Trish that is the first N fosperior that I have seen and I bought because I liked it. I don't know how it ought to look but I could look it up.
Dalfyre, welcome to this brom group and the wonderful world og brom growing. I don't know much but I am learning. At the moment it is a big game and I am enjoying it. I will have 2 years collecting in March, Wow time goes so quickly when it is enjoyable.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Ananas tricolour seeds, they have been planted today.

Hello All,
No, I was not typing while driving! Hubby was driving in horrendous holiday traffic, and I used the computer to take my mind off it. Shirley, we saw a young girl texting while sitting in the lane next to us, at the lights. Hubby rolled the car forward a bit, as he had a little bit more room ahead of us, and she must have thought the light had turned green and accelerated almost out into the intersection without looking! Shows how easy an accident can happen. Its something I wouldn't do, and I constantly tell myself, when I want to dig through my bag for chap stick or something, 'Just wait till you get there' or if its important I will pull up. Have you seen Aechmea 'Rakete' flower? I have a couple of pots full, and no flowers yet.
Hi Theresa. Wow! I can't believe you are still going through the earthquake repairs. Are you still getting after shocks? The Tillandsia you saw might have been Tillandsia cyanea, as it is quite a common one in department stores. It is quite a hardy one, so i am sure you would have no trouble keeping it alive. I was surprised to read that you kept Billbergia nutans alive through the cold of Christchurch in winter. Well done to you! I hope you settle back in ok, and can scrape together enough money to get yourself that Tillandsia!
Trish, can I have a go at identifying your pics? Are they, from 1-4, Neo. 'Fairy Tale', Neo, 'Macho', Aechmea chantinii, Neo. 'Red Gold'. Theresa, in Trishes photo number five, Tillandsia cyanea can be seen to the right.
Happy New Year, Bree. Did you celebrate well? I bet your town has been invaded by holiday makers!
Ian, what happened to pic 2? I have never seen Ananas seed and will have to look to mine when the time comes. My A. 'Tricolour' has a multiple head too, but nowhere near a size for seed (I think?) I am interested to see if you get any variegated seedlings.
I did a little bit of tidying up in my brom nursery and potted up a few guz and vriesea pups, as much as room would allow, and then gave all the old mums the once over, including a fertilise and spray for scale. I also zippered up the hot house seedling areas, after seeing jens success with her vriesea seedlings, which are twice the size of mine, in half the time! Tomorrow I am doing a tidy and revamp on a small garden, and I have a tray of small red Neoregelias to put in for colour. I am hoping to addict the garden owner to bromeliads! heh heh
Sorry, no pics today, but maybe i will take some at the garden tomorrow, or around here.I noticed the A. fasciatas are flowering, both plain and variegated.
Sue

I made the mistake of typing a thread in here instead of Word and lost the whold thread, really mad at myself and too tired to start all over again so I send my apologies tonight and will catch-up with you all hopefully tomorrow?

Nice pics everyone!

No pics tonight as I have spat the dummy with myself and am going to make myself a cup of tea and go drown myself in it, hope I have a cup big enough.

On the brighter side of life it's Friday tomorrow and I did get some broms in the mail today that will need potting on the weekend so something to look forward to.

Yes Sue plenty of tourist here, cant live in a tourist town and complain about it but i supose. I live out of town though at Palmers Island and i just go to Yamba to work and back home. Cant get a car park anywhere in Yamba.
Trish i love that brom in your 3rd pic on the 1st. Is it Lime & Lava?
I like the 2 broms you posted Shirley, you have alot of nice ones.
dalfyre- once you start collecting Broms you cant stop. hehe!
I need to repot alot of my broms but dont know if i should cut off the old mothers and chuck them away or can they still produce pups when there neally dead?

Hi everyone, yet another really hot day here today, still no rain and everything is getting very dry.

Bree, I saw Nev’s post in the Dec thread, hope it’s not too long before he is able to get another computer. The forum is just not the same without his posts. I think you’re right Bree with Trish’s neo Lime and Lava in her post of 1 Dec. I have a couple of old brom mums that are so near dead but they are still producing pups so your old mums might be worth holding on to a while longer, you may just get more pups … unbelievable really.

Dalfyre, I am sure you will get plenty of encouragement and good advice from all the forum members here. I believe there are some absolutely gorgeous broms, especially vrieseas, available in New Zealand. Good luck with your search, I am sure you will be just as brom addicted as the rest of us in no time at all.

Ian, hope you have success with your Ananas tricolour seeds. Your minis look pretty happy in the mango tree. We cut off some of the lower branches of the mango tree nearest the house this arvo and I am going to put broms in pots underneath to see how they like it. It could still be a bit too shady and possums and bats are attracted to it when it’s bearing fruit so, on second thought, it might not be the best time to do it now.

Sue, seems to be pretty common, texting while driving and they claim the oldies cause the majority of accidents … don’t think so. I haven’t seen Ae Rakete in flower, it’s a fairly recent purchase (Wendy’s last sale) and it’s a lovely plant. I’m with you Sue on the first 3 of Trish’s broms but I’m not familiar with the fourth. I would love to see some photos of your variegated Fasciatas, it’s such an awesome plant.

Trish, I had to laugh at you making a big cup of tea and drowning yourself in it … I would probably opt for warm chocolate fudge or caramel to drown myself in, or better still a huge vat of Bailey’s Irish Cream (with crushed ice, of course) … yeah, way to go ... drown or freeze, who cares, LOL. Hope you are back to your normal happy self now.

Hello all.
I did my gardening job this morning and it almost killed me. It was so hot, and there were twice as many weeds to pull as what was there two weeks ago, when I quoted! I had to do a bit of weedspraying, as I wasn't confident the weeds wouldn't pop back through, although Hubby helped with the mulch and we put it on really thick! Anyway, I took some photos, although not really good, as the sun was directly overhead when I finished, and the shadows were really dark. Never mind.
Shirley, I've been racking my brains over your NOID. It is SO familiar, but I can't put my finger on it. I will go for a walk around my broms in a minute and see if anything jogs my memory.
I like your Neo. 'Bird Rock' and have my one and only in flower at the moment. I didn't realise it was quite such a large brom! N. 'Devils Ruby' looks lovely too, so dark and with that really light centre.
I had to laugh, first at Trishs drowning herself in a cup of tea, but I laughed louder at your comment about drowning in Baileys, or freezing. Too funny. I could probably drown myself in a glass of wine quite easily right now.
My A. fasciata variegata is just beginning to flower, so I will give it a couple of days to get to the top of the foliage and then take a photo.
Bree, I know what you mean about living in a tourist town. It seems some stores didn't stock ahead for the extra shoppers, and the shelves are empty. Bit of a pain!
As for your old Mums. They tend to become susceptible to scale as they age, so I usually put them out of their misery when they get to that stage. Also, they get a bit rotty in the centre, and if they still hold water, this seems to attract Mopsquitos to lay their eggs/larvae in it. When they get to this stage, if they still have a small pup or two, I just cut away the old mother ffrom the base and leave the pups on the root ball in the pot, as this is usually enough to support them while they grow. Just add a bit of fertiliser to kick them along.
Thanks for the photo ian. They look great. thats a pretty mature Mago, by the looks of the thickness of the branches. Mine is still relatively small, but I might put some broms on at some stage. I have a few minis in the Tibouchina, so will take a pic for you.
Trish, i have lost many a post that way, and I totally understand the frustration. It takes a long time to reply to everyones post, so when it happens to me, I usually stomp of with the pips. I am using the PC today, and it usually signs me out as I post, so i will use your disaster as a reminder to me to copy before I post.
Photos are, pic one...before
pic two, after (sorry about the shadows)
pic three is after weeding, but before mulching
pic four is after mulching and adding some small Neos. There were some Billbergia pyramidalis there already, so I removed them while weeding and then replanted them after.
The garden gets sun in the morning until about 11am, so perfect for the red neos.
Sue

Good evening all. Still hot, dry and windy here. Sue, I love the transformation in your 4th photo. Wow, what a difference. It was great to see you even if it was only a flying visit. Sue rang and said that she was at the coast and coming over. As in straight away, 40 mins if I was lucky. Panic! What a dash around. It was like cramming for a garden exam! No time for mowing or weeding. She appears to look around casually but doesn’t miss a thing! Luckily it was off to Wendy’s then. Her place always looks fantastic. My next visit to Sue is going to be a surprise one.
Good to see you posting Tash. Your collection is going ahead in leaps and bounds. Good to hear you’re on top of your fungal problems. I use Mancozeeb. Hope that wasn’t the one that gave you problems.
Shirley, sounds like you’ve been busy with your grandchildren. Your noid looks like my Neo Charm. I like your Neo Devil’s Ruby. Nice photo of your Ae Rakete. Mine’s got a flower on it but it’s past its best. I’ll take a photo tomorrow.
Ian, you’re certainly right into your seed growing. Look forward to seeing progress photos.
Trish, your first Neo is very pretty. Was Sue right? Is it Fairy Tale? It looks like one called Berry something. Heaven? Love the combination of broms in your last photo. I’m being very careful and typing in Word because I’d be more likely to drown my sorrows in chocolate than tea and my clothes are already too tight after Christmas.
Therese, glad to hear you’re getting on top of your earthquake repairs. I’d love to live in NZ to grow the Vrieseas. They seem to grow so well over there and Sue says they’re much cheaper than over here.
Jean, your Vrieseas are looking lush and healthy. Good job. Beware, they’re very addictive especially if you start growing them from seed because you never know what you’re going to get.
Bree, I’m with Sue on old mothers. They can really attract scale when they’re on their last legs and that can spread to your other broms.
Thanks for posting those photos Wendy. Beautiful flowers. Hope you’re over the dreaded lurgy. Also hope that Johnny and Emily enjoyed their fireworks.
Night all, Jen
Just for a change, some Guzmanias tonight. The first one is Microguzmania Teresa. About the size a hand palm when fully mature. Fun trying to take a pup off!. 2. Bernie's Gold 3. Symphany Encore 4. El Cope 5. Myth (mutant, probably grown from tissue culture). The pups aren't far off flowering so fingers crossed for a repeat but not very likely.

Now let’s try this again the proper way and type my thread in my usual Word doc and copy and paste my thread after I attach my photos – right! Thanks everyone for understanding my frustration with myself, my evil twin has gone today and I am back to my normal self and I have got my sh*# together so to speak LOL. Shirley drowning myself in a huge vat of Bailey’s Irish Cream with crushed ice sounded way much nicer then in my cup of tea, I luv Bailey’s Irish Cream especially on the rocks YUM!

Shirley glad to hear you are interested in a pup of Neo Catlans Leopard, once mother brom has pupped I will let you know, I think I have 3 x mums as I liked this brom so much but am still waiting for pups. They look great around the garden because they are so much lighter in colour compared to some of my other broms. Also glad to hear you are going to try the pot in another pot dug into your garden beds for some of your broms, you will not be disappointed it works well in some of our garden beds and is more ecstatically pleasing to the eye with pots hidden in the ground.

Shirley that Pic of Ae. Rakete you posted the other day is really nice; I have not seen this one before, does its marking get more intense? I also like the under leaf colour that also reflects the markings.

Oh Shirley your Neo ‘Devil’s Ruby’ in your pic 2 is stunning, so very different for it to have a green centre instead of the other way around, will the dominant colour fill the centre eventually or does the centre stay green? Not sure what your NOID pic 3 is but it kind of reminds me a bit of Neo ‘Moana’s Beauty’ as it has the specks through it but the colour is way pinker?

Hi Bree, thanks for the heads up that Nev’s off line because his computer has died, I must have missed his last Dec’ thread saying this.

Bree Pic 3 posted on 31/12/12 was Neo ‘Lime & Lava’.

Bree don’t chuck your old mums away, even when they are half dead with only half a body they more than likely will still produce pups, I have a retirement village for my old mums and they are all producing pups, the only mums I chuck out are the ones where there centres are rotting out so as not to spread disease, like Sue if the mum is in bad condition but has pups I cut the mum away but leave the pups on the root ball in the pot. Some of my mums only have half bodies but their centres still have flowers so I kept them intact with the pups on. I will have to take some pictures of some of my old mums over the weekend so you can see how bad some of mine look but they are definitely worth keeping for a bit longer and a little bit of fertiliser help’s them along nicely either to pup or for the new pups to grow nice and strong. Just keep them away from all other broms, that’s why I have them opposite end of the garden in my brom retirement village lol.

Hi Dalfyre glad to hear that your repairs are done now, sounds like you could be going brom shopping real soon and it would be great to see pics of what sort of plants you choose for your garden, hopefully there will be quite a few broms in there, they won’t disappoint you as they are a very hardy plant and easy to grow and maintain and if you need any advice we are all here to help.

Hi Ian further to the pic you posted of your Neo Fosperior I have one call Neo ‘Fosperior Perfection’ but it looks very different to your Neo Fosperior as it has variegated leaves, I have attached as Pic 1.

Ian thanks for posting pic of your mini’s growing in mango tree, they appear to be doing really well, I will definitely give it a go hear, how do you tie them to tree? I wonder if I could just use some of my cooking string and tie them just enough to not fall until they have time to take hold of the bark?

Hi Sue great try guessing names of my pics posted on 2/1/13, Pic one is actually labelled as Neo Marmorata by the Seller but I will have to check paperwork again as does not sound right because it’s colour is a real grape colour with spots rather than greenish with spots? Pic 2 Correct is Neo ‘Macho’, Pic 3 Correct is Ae. ‘Chantinii’, Pic 4 Neo ‘Red Gold’ was a NOID that I purchased for $5 from a back yard brom sale, it was not labelled but I really liked it because it has a real nice apricot pink look about it with pink dots and it luvs full sun, I can’t wait to get pups of it because I want to plant some more around the garden and do not have many full sun hardy bromeliads. Pic 5 Correct Tillandsia cyanea (I forgot I have this one which makes it 2 x Till’s that I own LOL), she is a really pretty brom and I have her growing under 70% shade cloth.

Sue I luved the before and after pics of your garden, you have been very busy indeed weeding and planted broms, looks great. I managed to weed out front garden bed over the holidays and will have to take a pic of that, I still have a lot of pruning to do to the side front garden bed but ran out of time so plan to do some more over the weekend hopefully.

Hi Jen no unfortunately my first pic 1 posted on 2/1/13 is not Neo ‘Fairy Tale’ or Berry something. Heaven? I will dig up the paperwork over the weekend and get back to everyone as well as I have to get back to everyone who enquired regarding who the seller was for Vr. Black on Yellow. The label on my first pic 1 posted on 2/1/13 was labelled Neo ‘Marmorata’ but that does not sound right at all?

Jen all you Guzmanias pics are gorgeous, I think I only have about two or three in my collection, I don’t know why that is because I really like their flower?

Hi Wendy hope you are feeling much better, we miss hearing from you and seeing your beautiful pics.

Hi to anyone else looking in and anyone on the Sick List, we miss hearing from you all.

Anyway I was going to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea but for some funny reason now I have a craving for Bailey’s Irish Cream on the Rocks so I am going to pay our home bar a visit and poor myself a good splash, anyone care to join me, I know Shirley would but with crushed ice. I have never tried it with crushed ice, I will have to give that a go and report back to Shirley on which way I like drinking it better LOL.

Take care and Happy Gardening Everyone!

Trish

Pic 1 – Neo Fosperior Perfection for Ian
Pic 2 – Various broms
Pic 3 – Not broms sorry, but could not resist to post pic of my Coral plants in flower, I have forgotten what their proper name is but reminds me of Coral so I call them my Coral Plants.
Pic 4 – Various broms
Pic 5 – Various broms

Hi all, it’s Friday night again, already. As Jen said, another very hot, dry, windy day in Brissie. The grass is starting to brown off again and the gardens are looking thirsty.

We will probably go to the market tomorrow morning (not too early though) to check out what’s there. There are usually less stalls during school hols, guess everyone is away or maybe it’s just too hot at the moment.

Sue, love your garden makeover, your client must have been very happy with the result.

Jen, thanks for the ID on my NOID neo. I have seen neo Charm on eBay and have been tempted to bid so I’m pleased I didn’t. That’s the main reason I like to know the names of my broms, so that I don’t buy the same one over and over, though I have bought very similar looking plants with very different names.

Trish, my Ae Rakete is a recent purchase so I am unable to answer your question. I am sure Jen, Sue or Wendy would be able to tell you more. As for neo Devils Ruby, I only have the one, so not sure whether it will change but I hope it keeps its’ green centre. I will post another pic in a couple of months. Love your pics especially neo Fosperior Perfection. Mine appears to be losing its variegation, I’ll post a pic. Enjoy your Baileys on the Rocks, Trish, I’d love to join you.

Wendy, I hope you are on the mend and back posting again soon. And Nev, please come back soon.

Had a great day today busy in the garden and had fun potting up recent pup purchases, did a bit of gardening in the front yard also and took some pics of both.

Tomorrow will be spent working on the front garden some more as it is almost like a blank canvas at present.

Shirley I agree both of our Neo 'Fosperior Perfection' differ in colouring but I do like yours lots, mine is under 70% shade cloth. Liked all your other brom pics too, especially Neo 'Barbarian', I have not seen this one before but have heard it's name mentioned before and it sounded interesting and different so caught my interest.

Shirley yeah I did very much enjoy my Bailey's Irish Cream on the Rocks but am yet to try it with crushed ice.

Good morning everyone. Sorry I didn't get here yesterday. I had a big day mowing, pruning and a bit of housework. On days like that I haven't any energy left for even simple things, like turning on the computer!
Thanks for the compliments on the garden makeover. It was simple really, other than the weeding. It would have been nice to use a variety of Bromeliads, but the client is a non-gardener, and I like to see how they go, surviving on their own before adding anything nicer. There is scope for more improvements, as the yard is bordered with garden beds of agapanthus and white rocks (complete with weeds) I cleaned them up and reckon theres a couple of spots for some Aechmea blanchettianas there! Now to convince the client.
Trish, you made up for your short post with the last few! I love all the photos, and especially the front garden ones, as you know, that is my area of interest. It looks as though it is going along nicely. I especially like the golden canes with the broms planted around it.
Your 'Coral' flowers are Celosia, and they have what is called 'fasciation' which is a flatteneing out of some of the parts, be it stem or flowers, and it also usually results in more flowers or a wider stem. I see it a bit in Agapanthus, where the stem is wide and flat instead of round, and the flower heads are doubled. Anyway, the growers have somehow managed to use fasciation to their advantage by growing these lovely annuals for us. The other name for them is 'Cockscomb' as they somewhat resemble the wattle on a roosters head. I just bought a different Celosia again, with lovely purple spikes, that i will give to a friend.
Jen, I don't mind surprise visits, so catch me out if you can! heh heh. I imagine your place is tidy much of thetime too, and to get it looking as magic as it did last week, in 40 minutes, then it must have been pretty good to start with. It would have taken at least 10 minutes to hose out the patio area, which indicates to me that you were bored waiting for me! heh heh. I love that little Micro guzmania. I had seen photos of it, but to see it for real, it was so cute!
Shirley, I hope you have a nice time at the markets and find new treasure. I am going to isit the markets this morning too, as a friend is selling some of her broms, and also the car boot market is on, and I want to pick up some books. Being an avid reader, I'm always looking for more.
Right, lets see whats on the SD card today.
Photo one is Neo. 'Sunday best' in the afternoon light.
Photo two is N. 'Princess Di' in the afternoon light
Photo three is a NOID Aechmea. Jen, does this look like it might be A. 'Little Harv'?
Photo four is labelled Pitcairnia paniculata, but it doesn't look like the one on the bromeliad photo index.
Photo five is Aechmea fendlerii
Sue

Hi all,I think that summer cold has got through the computer system and got me. I don't feel too bright but a casual look amongst my Vr's showed some fantastic growth of pups. I took off 1 pup yesterday and it is almost 300 mm high. In September it may have been 2" high . Is this usual for a well grown and well fed Vr. I have followed Nev's suggestion of placing a couple of prills of fertiliser(slow release) in the lower leaves and have grown the plant in a lot of light, Under 70%shadecloth with a floor of scoria to maintain high humidity. I am doing the same with some of my bills and a few Neos. They seem to like the conditions and grow well.
I have had a thought, maybe dangerous. I was wondering whether I could use a rooting powder to stimulate root growth. It usually isn't necessary but I wonder if it would speed up rooting or whether it would cause more problems than it is worth. I will wait for feedback before experimenting as someone somewhere has possibly tried it before.
I can't concentrate here .
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Vr splendens on05-01-12
Pic 2 A pup I took yesterday

Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a good weekend. I thought you’d all left town, glad to see you’re all back.

I received an email message from Nev, the subject of which was ‘Bloody Computers’. First up, he wishes all the gang at DG a happy new year.

He went on to say he is having similar problems to those he had last time with his computer. He can access his emails and can sometimes read posts on DG but is unable to post himself. The guy who fixed it last time has moved interstate but Nev’s son is visiting from Bali next week and he is hoping he can get it working for him.

As you can imagine, it’s very frustrating for Nev to be able to read the posts and not participate. He promises to be back as soon as he possibly can.

Jean, if you are still visiting DG, Nev said he will get your plants off to you in a couple of weeks.

Trish, I checked DG for about an hour after my first post last night to see if anyone else was visiting, then gave up, posted some pics and turned off. I missed you by about ten minutes. Our dog’s name is Rebel and he turned seven just after Xmas. Your front garden looks great … luv your log and the neo Lavender Blue x Lilac Dream pup in your pic.

I put in a small brom garden myself this afternoon. It is in the front yard under a euodia tree which has just about finished flowering. The parrots absolutely love this tree when it blooms, so next Spring-Summer my broms will be covered in parrot poop. I will post a couple of pics ... you will see that I haven’t moved my mess as I wanted to take the pics while it was still light. I removed quite a few scraggy agapanthus and I will clean them up and replant them elsewhere in the garden.

Sue, missed you yesterday but sounds like you were very busy. I didn’t get anything at the market yesterday other than a couple of small succulents, how did you fare. WOW your neo Sunday Best is a stunner and your Princess Di too.

Ian, sorry to hear you are under the weather. I also have quite a few vrieseas with pups and lots of neos. And I think I remember Wendy saying once she uses rooting powder when potting up new pups. She must be feeling pretty low as we haven’t heard from her for a few days.

Wendy, hope you are on the mend, we miss your posts too.

Bree, good to know you’re still reading DG even if you’re not posting.

My pics are of my new brom garden from different angles … sorry about the mess. I have tied some nylon stocking to the trunk of the tree and plan to chase up a few minis to tie on there. My last pic is of the euodia flowers which grow out of the branches of the tree. Not many left now on the tree now but it looks absolutely stunning when in full bloom. I will probably have lots and lots of baby trees growing in the cups of my broms too when the seed pods drop.

I don’t normally post till much later in the evening so I’ll probably pop back later on tonight.

Had a wonderful busy day in the garden today counting pups and writing them down to keep track of how many I have of what, also found quite a few that needed separating so I got that done too, isn’t it a rewarding feeling to see broms producing 2 to 3 pups per plant, I said I only wanted to keep two pups from each plant so will have to start putting some aside to swap / sell, doing a bit of both would be great, it is relatively still early days though and I am very new at this next brom stage I am coming into. I find it absolutely fascinating how quickly pups do grow from week to week. I also need to start buying my brom pots in bulk as at the moment I get them all from Bunnings but I am going through so many per week now that I have to look for cheaper options and I am going to shop around same for my brom mix that I also get from Bunnings and see if I can save shopping elsewhere?

Well I did not do much in the front garden with the pruning of shrubs, maybe next weekend. I spent some time with my little vriesea seedlings today, they are doing great and growing well. I had to redo the writing of their names on the container lids but also wrote small tags to place inside container also and then gave them a little fertiliser. The remainder of the day was spent pulling out weeds, shuffling broms around and hand watering the garden. Clocked off at about 6pm and came back inside as I had things to get organised in prep for the week.

Hi Sue thanks for your complements regarding our front garden project, aside from weeding and some pruning done I still have to give it a couple of weeks to tackle any new weeds that will for sure pop up and then I plan to hit them with some roundup, that’s why I don’t have my broms in the ground aside from the fact that this garden will have many sun hardy varieties and I don’t have many of these at present, so it could take me a long while to fill the area up with broms and succulents but I am in no rush. I still want to do the moon shape design around the golden cane palms but for now just have broms sitting sort of where I want them as it is a nice shady spot for them and I am chasing all the shade I can find at the moment with this heat. Sounds like you have been real busy in the garden, I know what it feels like to stop and then just hit a wall and have no energy left, while I’m out working in the garden I have so much energy but when I stop it’s like hard to want to do anything inside the house.

Thanks Sue for letting me know that my ‘Coral’ flowers are called Celosia. The Celosia you mention with the purple spike sounds nice.

Sue I am a bit of an avid book reader too and luv fossicking the markets for new books to read. I mainly read at night or sometimes I read at work during my lunch break if I am not doing anything special or just need some time out.

Sue I really liked your Pics 1 & 2 of Neo ‘Sunny Best’ and Neo ‘Princess Di’ they are so bright and cheery.

Hi Ian I hope you’re feeling much better; I think summer colds are worse than winter colds as the heat really drains you.

Hi Bree I really liked your Pic of Neo ‘Decora’ in flower, it is such a nice lilac colour. Bree check out pics below of some of the broms in my Brom Retirement Village, I think they are so worth keeping if you have a spot in the garden to quarantine them from all your other broms. I do spray mine for pests or disease like I would my other broms (if necessary); it is just a matter of caring for them like you would normally do.

Hi Shirley thanks for the heads up on what is happening with Nev and his computer, it will be great to see him back and hear what he has been up to and how his broms are doing. Yeah it would be frustrating for Nev to be able to read the posts but not participate but knowing Nev he would be taking down notes and will have a great deal of wonderful stuff to say when he gets back.

Shirley glad to hear you liked my front garden bed shots, your pics of your brom garden look fantastic and so full of colour, like you I like to mix my broms up when planting so there is a colidiscope of colour everywhere. What a pretty flower the Euodia tree has, I have not seen this type of tree before.

Shirley, Rebel is nearly the same age as Lucy who is 8.

Hi Nev we miss you, hope your son works out how to fix computer problem.

Wendy hope you’re on the mend we miss hearing from you, get well soon.

Anyway I will finish with some pics of some of the broms in their Retirement Village so Bree can see what she thinks:

Pic 1 of Pups (4 x but you can only see three in pic) and Pic 2 of very Old Mother.
Pic 3 Old Mum on Left and Pup on Right
Pic 4 Old Mum and New Pup
Pic 5 Old Mum and New Pup

Goog morning,
Anthony, you cheeky bugger, I have Dmailed you. Hope you're keeping out of the line of fire in Tas.
Ian, sorry to hear you're coming down with a cold. Such a common complaint but it doesn't make it any easier! Your Vriesea pup sure had a growth spurt. You must be doing something right there, I'd say. I haven't tried the hormone powder for root production, but I imagine it would be fairly safe to try. Why not experiment on some of the more widely grown broms,such as A. gamosepala? I have plans to get a parcel off to you today, so hopefully you will have it by friday.
Bree, I am not familir with Neo. 'Decora', but the centre is a beautiful lilac. Nice to know you are still looking in.
Shirley, that garden is looking fantastic. Is that a big Neo. marmorata in the second pic at front? What is the dark one at the front of the third photo? I am not familiar with your tree but am going to look it up. It looks as though there are a couple more garden beds there that you could revamp should the need arise! Don't they look good with those stone edges?
Thanks for the news of Nevs computer. I hope his son arrives with a new one for him. I'm afraid i woud have thrown the old one out the window by now! Our PC is also on the way out, and is quite dated, so we're thinking a new one is on the cards for the future.
I got a couple of books from the markets, but didn't buy any plants. My friend had her stall and did very well with the broms she was selling. It was a very colourful and well set up stall, so they sold themselves.
Trish, you could try googling horticulture supplies in your area, to find pots, labels e.t.c. Or if you have a rural supply shop (horse feed, fertilisers e.t.c.) they sometimes have nursery supplies cheaper than other shops. As for potting mix. If you're confident that you could make a mix similar to your purchased one, the local landscape supplier should be able to provide you with ingredients. If you don't want to buy bulk, you can often take buckets or old potting mix bags and fill them yourself, and it is still cheaper than shop bought potting mix.
I took a photo of my new Celosia today, Trish, so will post a photo for you at the bottom of this post.
As for reading, I read every night, and sometimes in the middle of the day if I get a break. I read anything mostly. Although not books on war, and not spy stories and mens type books, but I like sci-fi, thrillers, horror, and some of the girly books around now. One I read recently was called 'This Charming Man' by Marian keyes, and it was a hoot.
I am glad you enjoyed both N. 'Princess Di' and N. 'Sunday Best'. They did look good in that afternoon light!
Wendy, I too, hope you are feeling a bit better and can come back soon with some pics and news of your broms.
Pic one is the Celosia for Trish
Pic two is Neo 'Running Red River' or 'Red River' I think they are the same plant?
Pic three is Neo. 'Old Love Letters' still quite young
Pic four is Neo. 'Raphael'
Sue

Checked on the broms when I got home because it has been very windy today, found about 3x pots knocked over so stood them back up and filled them with water.

Hi Sue sounds like your friend did really well at the markets selling her broms, I was thinking of doing the same thing way down the track but at the moment I have quite a few friends who want to buy from me when I give them the go ahead when I am ready as they are looking at landscaping their gardens and want broms.

Sue thanks heaps for the advice regarding googling horticulture supplies; to be honest I am now seeing the need to shop around given that my brom collection is growing and the large amount of supplies I am going through at the moment and it is only going to increase more and more with my addiction so I have to start thinking smarter in the way I do things and the more I save the more broms I can buy LOL.

Thanks Sue for posting pic of your new Celosia, it is really pretty and I will have to look at getting some more for my garden. The ones I posted recently are growing in my vegetable garden of all places along with Marigolds and pansies. I luv growing flowers around my vegetable garden boarder, I don’t know why but I just do, I suppose just to add a bit of colour because so many vegetables are green in colour.

Sue I mainly read Fiction, Horror and some Girly Books (not Romance), I wish I had more time to read like I used to when I was much younger, I suppose working a full time job and tending to house duties and exercising when you get home does not leave much room for reading, but I do try to pick up a book every now and then just so I can kick back and relax and not always be on the go all the time. Sue ‘The Charming Man’ book you read I have not come across yet, I will have to speak to my neighbour next door how works in a book shop and see if they have it as it sounds like it would be worth the read for a laugh.

Sue I thought Neo ‘Running River’ and Neo ‘Red River’ and are different plants, I have ‘Red River’ and had ‘Running River’ written down on my want list? I think I learnt that there was also a Neo ‘Running River’ from this forum if my memory serves me correctly Nev may have told us or was it Shirley???

Sue I was pleased to see your Neo ‘Raphael’ as I have only recently purchased this as a pup, how long have you had your one for, I luv all its colours.

Anyway time to get dinner on the road. I might drop in later?

Take care and Happy Gardening Everyone!

Trish

Pic 1 and Pic 2 – Vriesea from Bunnings and Pup (not too sure what its name is as the label was just one of those generic labels that mean nothing. Any idea’s anyone? Reminds me of Vr. Red Chestnut?
Pic 3 – Vriesea ‘Kaumana’ – Shiigi
Pic 4 – ‘Snows of Mauna Kea F2’
Pic 5 – Some of my Vriesea Babies

Hi all, I returned to work today and it was hot. It will keep me busy with sugar cane loco wheels for the next 3 months. At least I have something to do and get paid for. Then there will be something else to do when that job is finished. I have always worked and this is common work for me. I just had 2 weeks holiday. I watered some of my plants today and gave my seedlings a dose of Seasol and didn't do much else. It has been a tiring day and I bid you all night night. No pics tonight.
Have a good one
Ian

Hello all, another hot, dry day here and still a bit windy too. We have had a few spots of rain here and there, like for about 15 seconds … by the time you realise that it’s raining, it’s stopped.

I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to do tomorrow in the garden. But if it’s anywhere near as hot as it has been the last couple of weeks it’s unlikely that much of it will be done.

Trish, sounds like your vriesea seedlings are doing better than mine. Mine don’t appear to be growing at all and they seem to be disappearing though I can’t see any bugs or anything in the containers, I think they may be too wet. I haven’t had much success with tillandsia seed either. My neo seedlings are going great though and really starting to take off.

I love your vriesea pics Trish, especially Vr Kaumana and Snows of Mauna Kea. What is the second from the left in your last pic, yumm.

Sue, you are right, the big neo in my new brom garden is Marmorata, the dark one you asked about is neo Nelson.

Hi everyone.
Still have this cold and coughing all over the place. tonight the throat is so sore again. maybe it's from clearing my throat all day. I wake in the mornings thinking yippee the cold is gone but after about an hour the nose is running again and I start coughing again. So I think the secret is to have lots of naps to fix it for periods of time. LOL. this time last week I was sleeping for a couple hours each afternoon. Energy would just evaporate after a short period of time. Some days I didn't even go down to the broms at all but stayed upstairs. But I am starting to work in the broms again, potting up seedlings and pups in general, collecting and sowing seed etc.

wow I've read so much I can't remember all the things I was going to talk about. Sue it was lovely to see you and Jen last Monday. sorry I was so croaky and I hope I didn't share any germs with you all. Jen I at least had some notice that Sue was coming. she sent me a dmail. Unfortunately I didn't see it till too late to ask her to bring me anything up from her garden. Ah well, we'll have to go down there and pick them up ourselves but not for a month or so.

Shirley I love your garden makeover. that brick surround looks wonderful. hope you have plenty of shade from that tree and don't have any burning because that garden looks amazing. Sue I love that makeover you did for your client. Looks superb but you always do a good job with gardens.

Ian I have used rooting powder on pups. If the pup broke off a bit too high I always used rooting powder to seal the edge before planting. If the pup comes off properly they shouldn't need rooting powder but hey it can't hurt them so you might as well use it.

Trish I love your vrisea pics especially pic 2 and 3. That Shigii hybrid is going to be a looker for sure and I love the colouring of that one from bunnings.
Sue Sunday best is one of my favourites for sure. we must have a few of them around by now as they seem to pup pretty well and I don't think I've put any out on sales tables yet. We also have Sunday's Child but it only gave 2 pups and I promised one to the lady I got my first one from. Hers rotted off so she doesn't have one now. I moved one down near the pond to remind me to take it to her and I'll show you how much colour it lost. see pic 1

pic 1 is Sunday's child. they did look the same down the side but the white one was the one for my friend but it's lost colour down the western side. not enough light. the other one gets pure afternoon sun through the trees hence the deep pink colour.
Pic 2 is Sunday's best
Pic 4 is Sunday's picnic
Pic 3 is Sunda's sister
pic 5 is one of our trees full of broms. hubby uses u nails to attach them. if there are 2 still joined together with a nice stolen between he will use 2 u nails to make the plants sturdy on the tree. if they can move they will not attach their roots but if you nail them on tight they will soon have roots going everywhere to hold on tight and start to climb.

Sorry about the ealier post but I didn't have a button for [choose a file] so I posted and returned and there's the button. go figure DG huh. Trish I notice that your clumps of golden cane are very thick. my hubby likes to thin them out by cutting all the very skinny new ones and then he picks a nice fat one in the middle and cuts it off flat to make a pedestal. he then lowers and nice big specimen into the middle and sits it on the pedestal. when it starts lookin spent he replaces it with a really nice one again. He only keeps the canes thick enough to shade the plants from overhead but allows sunshine through them from sides. can't find a good shot of the canes with a specimen in the middle. will take a pic tomorrow, or I should say later today. wow where did the time go. Time for bed now. the eyes are telling me they've had enough looking at computer screens again. They've been used to much earlier nights recently so way past my bedtime tonight.
Nev hope you are back soon too. Ian hope I didn't share my germs with you but if you went back to work today I guess you aren't stricken with this thing that I have.
Night all.
Wendy

Hello you lot. Had a big morning doing the watering to try and beat the heat. Its 32-33 here at midday but 25 inside, so guess where I am?
Trish, I love your Vriesea 'Snows of Mauna Kea' F2. Its lovely. I thought your Bunnings one looks a little like V. 'Big Red', but definitely a fosterina type/hybrid.
I like to plant flowers in the vege garden too, because if you let them go to flower, you attract bees and other pollinators, some of which can also be benificial by eating or deterring other garden pests. Not ony that, but they look pretty. I use Marigolds too, as well as Salvia 'Bonfire' which self seeds so I never have to replant. I haven't got much in the patch, as its too hot. There are a few beans still producing and some capsicums, but I am closing it down now till about march. I will just mulch it over with sugar cane mulch until then.
I have had Neo. 'Raphael' for some time now. I have one that is just past its best, so that will be my stock plant now, and there are a few pups to come off an old mother, which I will do in February. I find they mark with the winter cold, so need a warm place then.
Ian, I'm not sure what you do for work, but sounds like it involves the wheels? Is that right. i hope you have a cool spot to work in. No fun being in the heat. I have decided to leave sending the plant to you until it cools down a bit, as I am afraid it will be cooked in the 5-7 days it takes to get to you. I will put the seeds in the post soon though. I will not forget your plant though, and I also have one to send to Nev, but am saving that for cooler weather too.
Shirley, no rain here either, not even spit! Sorry your seedlings aren't doing well. Its frustrating isn't it? Jen was having amazing success with a mini hothouse, by keeping it zipped up to keep in the humidity. I decided to try keeping mine zipped up, but I swear it was about 50 degrees in there yesterday, so have gone back to leaving one side of the door unzipped. I guess I'll have to settle for slower growth, or find a completely shaded spot for the hot house. Currently it is in the shade house, with a piece of shade cloth over it, but it still gets very hot.
I like your photos, and have all three of them. My favourite would be Aechmea 'Snowflake' followed by A. 'Fine Lines' (nudicaulis cultivar)
Wendy, sorry to hear you are still down and out with the flu! I guess you have had a very busy time and alot of stress which takes it out of you and leaves you susceptable to all sorts of germs.
Thanks for your kind remarks about the gardens. I think they are fairly simple to make, and very effective.
Neo. 'Sunday Best' came with LeisaD's collection, and there are about three in her garden. They are growing quite hard so aren't very big, and none have flowered or pupped yet. There are also some nice Bromagic Neos colouring up, and every now and then one catches my eye.
I look forward to you and Jen coming for a visit, mainly because it will give me a push to go brom shopping at Jans or Peters. Can't wait.
Nev, if you are looking in, I hope your computer gets well soon. Enjoy your sons visit and hope to hear from you when we can.
Photo one is N. olens x 'Guinea' (I should check that, cause I am guessing)
Photo two is Neo. cyanea, which is a nice little species mini
Photo three is my bromeliad bird, who is not easy to photograph. He has a rubber snake around his neck, which is to try and stop the birds from stealing the Tillandsia usenoides. Doesn't work!
Photo four is Nidularium fulgens, orange form. I have the pink/red, so was tickled to find this in the new plants.
Wendy, sometimes I don't see the 'choose File' option either, so I just click where I think it should be, and it comes up.
My Mummys birthday today, so I must o give her a call and see how she is.
Till tomorrow
Sue

Hi everyone – Well I'm back in business once again; it seems the hot weather did something to my computer because it's working again. It's 30 degrees here inside as I type (1520hrs.) and 47 degrees out in the yard. I'm just dreading what losses I'll find with the brom's in a day or two as this is the hottest I can ever remember it being here just one street back from the sea. Fortunately so far we haven't had the hot north westerly winds they forecast and I hope they at least get the other part of the forecast correct when they say there will be a cool southerly change about 0100hrs.

I was out in the yard at 0430hrs this morning and started watering and damping everything down and two days ago I gave everything a good dose of Seasol hopefully to help prevent too much heat damage. As soon as the sun goes down this afternoon I'll get out and spray water around to cool things down again and probably hit them all with another dose of Seasol in a couple of days which hopefully will cut my losses to some extent.

There's just so much reading to do since I last wrote so I'll just try and “put my two bobs worth in” where I think it may be of use. Firstly, thanks Sue for starting a new thread, what would we do without you.

Jen – Nice to see you posting again; its interesting what you say about the variegated Ae. Caudatas; Wendy posted a pic of hers a few weeks back and I commented that mine had never flowered and I probably should try a new location. When I went to get them out, I found that first one and then the other had spikes coming up, so I guess everything comes to those who wait.

Trish – That's good of you to share your potting mix recipe with us all. We all know that brom's grow in pretty much anything, but “growing” and “growing well” are two different things and to hear of a recipe from a grower who grows them well is much appreciated.

I always made up my own mix when I had orchids and when I first started with brom's, but with the back problem I now have, using a shovel is out of the question so I just buy the Brunnings Orchid Potting Mix at $8.80 for a 25L bag and have had good results with that. I have also tried the Brunnings “compressed coir chunks” with some Aechmea seedlings and they seem to love that as well, so there's another option for me. I may even try mixing both together in equal quantities and see how that goes.

Ian – Your plant looks like it may have been a Neo. 'Perfection' which has almost lost it's variegation. I can still see some faint variegations in the leaves though so you could still get variegated pups similar to those in the pic's that Jen, Trish and Shirley posted on Jan 4.

Neo Fosperior was from a cross of Neo Fosteriana x Spectabilis made by Mulford Foster in 1950 and Neo. 'Fosperior Perfection' or more correctly Neo 'Perfection' as it should be called, was from a variegated sport taken off Fosperior. Unfortunately it is a bit unstable and does throw plain pups occasionally. In my experience once a plain pup is produced they never produce variegated ones again (at least they haven't on my plants).

Wendy – Nice pic's you've posted and I love the one of Max in front of the crocodile, he has that typical cattle dog stance doesn't he?.

Tash – It's good to see you back posting again and I hope you can drag yourself away from Face Book and visit us more often this year. What's happening with your hybridising? Have you anything interesting coming along in the pipeline? I see you still have that attachment for those prickly bloody Neo's though. Ha! Ha!

Trish – Neo Leopard and Catlan's Leopard are two completely different plants.
The BCR tells us:
Neo. Leopard A form of possibly carcharodon or pascoaliana. Found at the base of rocks above a rubbish dump in Santa Maria Magdalena, RJ, Brazil Carcharodon Group Note from Chester Skotak 9/2011. This name was eventually superceded by 'Rainbow'. now 'Rainbow Carcharodon'.
To see pic's go to http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=6582#6582

Trish I hope you let us know which of the two you have, they are both beautiful plants so either way you are on a winner.

Shirley – I like your Neo 'Devil's Ruby' but I don't see much point in asking you to put me on the end of a very long waiting list for a pup as I'll probably be long gone by the time my turn comes around, but it is a beautiful plant with a most unusual colour combination.

I love the pic of your dog, what beautiful eyes he has and you couldn't do anything but love him once he gives you that look.

It looks like your Neo. 'Perfection' is having an each way bet with half of the leaves variegated and the other half plain. I've read where experts say that any pups coming from the side of the plant where the variegated leaves are growing from will be variegated and those from the other side will be non-variegated. It will be interesting to see if this statement is correct or not so will you keep us posted please. Your Neo. Cruenta 'Broadleaf' is a nice plant also; I remember when I first flowered mine what a surprise I got as I wasn't expecting the nice soft pastel colours which gradually changed. It's a good grower and pupper as well.

Neo. 'Barbarian' has impressed me for some time with its unusual markings. I have used it as a parent with Neo 'Rain Cloud' as well as another cross with Neo 'Fanfare'. I know the seed is viable as there are now little specks of green popping out so it will be interesting to see what eventuates.

Ian – In regard to using rooting hormones, I can pass on to you what I found in a little trial I carried out a couple of years back. I had a Mother Plant of Neo.'Nobel Descent' which had produced five same size pups as a result of the “Prill in the leaf axil treatment” so I thought it a good opportunity to test ways of getting roots on pups quicker, especially in the colder months of winter. I removed the pups in March and after a couple of days they were all planted in the same mix as I mentioned previously and they weren't fertilised with anything. Pup No.1 was treated with Hormone Powder, Pup No.2 was treated with Hormone Gel, Pup No.3 was treated with honey as I had read somewhere that honey had hormonal properties and was good for inducing roots quickly. Pup No.4 had the “heel” (where the new roots come from) wrapped in sphagnum moss and Pup No.5 had nothing done to it as it was the “control” pup which to compare the others against.

After four months all pups were knocked out of their pots and with the exception of the one with the sphagnum moss, none had any root activity visible. The one with the Sphagnum had roots about a half inch long. The pups were all re-potted again back into the same pots and mixes with no further additives. At six months, the inspection was again repeated. This time the pup with the Sphagnum moss had roots all through the moss and starting into the potting mix. The remainder of the pups with no exceptions all had new roots just starting to show. The results of this test under my conditions told me the pups treated with the two different rooting hormones and honey hadn't performed any better than the pup used as the “control” and not treated with anything. The surprise was that the pup with the heel wrapped in Sphagnum Moss outshone them all and that was just tried as an "afterthought" simply because I had an extra pup spare.

Shirley – You've done a good job of your brom garden around the Euodia tree. I've never heard of such a tree until now and it's fascinating how the flowers are produced in such an unusual manner. Do they grow easily from seed? If so do you think you could save me a couple of pods as I've always been fascinated in growing trees from seed. I've grown Poinciana seed from Cairns and Lawson Pine seed from Tasmania along with a lot of others I don't remember the names of any more. Usually once I get them to about four inches high I give them to my son who turns them into Bonsai.

Sue – I would have gladly tossed this computer on the rubbish tip long ago if I had a bit of spare money to buy another, however my budget doesn't allow for it at this time as I have the ute. due for rego and it needs new tyres and would you believe the Green Slip has gone up 50% on last year's cost. The reason? They want to get the older vehicles off the road and it's only 24, still a young girl.

I think you were discussing with Trish about purchasing pots, pot hangers and other brom requisites; our Brom. Society gets all our supplies from Garden City Plastics and we find they are reasonably priced e.g Pot Hangers 30c each and the local nurseries down here want $1.20 for the same thing. I think they have agents in most states and you could check further on http://www.gardencityplastics.com/ContactUs if you're interested. You do have to buy things by the box so maybe you could go halves with another grower if the quantity is too large

That's about it from me, sorry if I missed anyone out but I'm getting tired of typing so I'll finish with a few pic's of the Vrieseas and Guzmanias in their shade house as promised for Jean.

Still gusty windy today and a few rain clouds around but nothing in them really with all this wind.

Hi Shirley pleased to hear you got a few drops of rain even if it was only for 15 seconds or so, hopefully this is a sign that rain is on its way for you as I have been trying to send some you way after the 7ml we received (sorry to gloat). We experienced similar when we only got a few drops here and there for a few days and then we got a good couple of days of heavy rain which was really nice.

Shirley with you saying that your Vriesea Seedlings are not growing that much, have you tried fertilizing them yet? I give mine a very weak feed fortnightly and they seem to like it. I have been alternating using Seasole and some of Joes Orchid Liquid Fertiliser. Remember less is more when it comes to fertilizing anything. I did have to spray all my seedlings with Milton Anti-bacterial diluted Tablets as some of my seed trays had algae in them, a couple of the seedlings in some of the trays only have 4 or 5 seedlings left because I discovered severe algae thought 2 x of the trays, the rest of the other 18 seedling trays are doing really well. Yeah it is also important not to overwater them or they will drown and rot away. Unfortunately I don’t know anything about growing Tillandsia from seed but sure there are other members in this forum that could shed some light on the issue you are experiencing with the ones you have sown. But all in all I am very now growing broms from seeds and am in the early stages of learning so I don’t know if I should be giving out advice but just wanted you to know that feeding mine is helping and getting rid of the algae and not overwatering works for me.

Shirley in answer to your question what is the Vriesea (second on the left) in my Pic 5, it’s Vriesea ‘White Bands’, it is one I too really like and I now have two of them because I liked it that much. Pleased to hear you also liked Vr. ‘Kaumanu’ and Vr. ‘Snows of Mauna Kea F2’; even though the pups are only still relatively young they really stand out amongst my other Vriesea’s and are a real talking peace when friends come to visit.

Shirley you will not be disappointed with your Pic 1 Ae. ‘Mend’, I have a couple of these growing and they are a superb brom that can take a fair bit of light and colour up ever so nicely, they flower it produces is also very pretty. I don’t have your Pic 2 Ae ‘Orlandiana Snowflakes’ but it is on my Wish List since Wendy last posted pic of hers. I have not seen your Pic 3 of Ae. Fine Lines, this one is really pretty and different to all my other Ae.’s.

Hi Ian how are you feeling; hope you got better before returning back to work. Like you I have always worked my whole life and like to keep busy. Yeah I agree the heat is atrocious at the moment, especially when you are working out in it all day.

Hi Wendy wonderful to hear from you and see your beautiful pics once again. You must be well and truly over that dreaded cold of yours by now, glad to hear you are keeping busy and have started working with your broms again potting up seedlings & pups and collecting & sowing seeds etc. You must feel pleased with yourself after accomplishing so many tasks in a day.

Wendy pleased to hear you liked my Vr. ‘Kaumana’, I agree it is going to be a looker for sure. Even though the pup is only still relatively young it really stands out amongst my other Vriesea’s and is a real talking peace when friends come to visit. The Pic 1 and Pic 2 Vriesea I purchased from Bunnings was labeled something like ‘Patterned Leaf Vriesea’, just one of those generic tags all their Vrieseas tend to come with, it annoys me because I really like to know what I am purchasing at the time but luved it that much I just had to have it and not long after purchasing it was pupping.

Wendy I am not too sure what the Palm Tree is at the front of our place because it looks very different to the stock standard Golden Palm we have out back? I adore the one out front because it throws much needed shade around the yard. Thanks for your advice on thinning it out and making a pedestal in the middle to display a large specimen plant, what a great idea, I look forward to seeing a picture of what Johnny has done.

Wendy I really liked all the Neo Sunday pics you posted, especially liked the broms growing up your tree, what a show piece.

Hi Sue wise place to be inside with the heat you are experiencing at the moment. I brought some of my seedlings inside on the weekend to work on just to get out of the heat for a bit and because I was comfortable I got more done. I just brought in a fold out table from the garage and used this as a work bench and put a drop sheet around where I was working to keep my floor clean, it worked well.

Sue pleased to hear your liked my Vr. ‘Snows of Mauna Kea F2’, it blew me away when it arrived in the mail as I luv the lighter coloured ones with nice markings. Thanks for providing your thoughts on what my Bunnings Vriesea might be as the label just said “Patterned Leaf Hybrid”.

Sue yeah I too don’t have much in the vegie patch because it is too hot so I am going to clean out the bed, just keep the flowers in it and prepare it and let it rest for the next lot of planting once things cool down a bit. I still have capsicum, spring onion, cos, basil, thyme but that’s about it, more flowers then vegies.

Sue luved all your pics, especially Neo ‘cyanea’ what a beautiful species mini and your bromeliad bird looks awesome, shame it does not keep the birds away.

Hi Nev fantastic to see you back we have all missed you so much. Sounds like you are getting hit with some severe hot weather but by the sounds of things you have matters in hand feeding and watering your broms to get them through each day so hopefully they will all be ok.

Nev thanks yes I have been very pleased with the brom mix I buy from Bunnings and was more than happy to share what I know works well for me, thanks for sharing what you use, I have on the odd occasion pinched some of Joes Orchid Mix which sounds similar to the one you mention and my broms have also been very happy growing in this too but I always add to the Orchid Mix Charchoal and Perlite like I do to my pre-brought brom mix from Bunnings.

Nev thanks heaps with your wonderful knowledge and assistance I have just identified my Neo ‘Leopard’ as Neo ‘Catlan’s Leopard’ – hooray! How petty is that ‘Rainbow Carcharodon’ though with those big beautiful teeth, I want one too.

Thanks heaps Nev I will give Garden City Plastics a go and see what they stock and what their prices are, I really needed to get myself organized that way and was interested in buying in bulk if it means I can save in the long run.

Nev luved all the pics you posted of your Vrieseas and Guzmanias, what healthy plants and beautiful flowers and so well organized and cared for like every brom pic you post and I drool over lol.

Everyone I have a friend who is experiencing really bad Red Spider Mite epidemic in her Orchid Nursery, any advice on how best treat them? Confidor is just not doing the trick as this seems to feed them rather than kill them LOL. My friend is proposing to attack them on the weekend so is calling around trying to get the best advice.

Hi all, When I mount a plant to a piece of wood or rock I have been using Liquid nails high strength construction adhesive with reasonable success. It seems to work well with Tils as long as the timber or rock is solid and clean. On live trees I have used garden twine, seems to work, nails sometimes through the stolon and sometimes bent over, this works also. I have used flywire cut in strips and it works but not well, no strech to get tight. Recently I have been using roofing screws with reinforcement caps to hold plants on to palms. Time will tell just how well this works. These screws are second hand Galvanised.
I took 2 pups off my old Ae primera mum and have potted them differently. 1 in straight scoria and the other in my normal potting mix, 50% Searles potting mix and 50% pine bark reasonably fine. I find that i need to reduce the acidity of fresh pinebark and that is why I use the potting mix. I have mixed up a brew using some dolomite mixed with water to wet the mix and have it in a bin. It will have a months rest and then I can use it.
Sue, I work as a Fitter and turner and a Boilermaker.For between 1/3 to 1/2 of the year I build up and then machine the wheels of progress. This keeps the world moving. Well really The world of our customer anyway. It is in the transportation of sugar cane to the mills for processing. Sometimes I think I am going wheely loco. It is hot up here and some of the wheels have to be removed with heat. This is a hot job and no fans can be used for about a half hour at a time.Heat of the wheel is about 230C so a good open air shed is a necessity. The worker does not have to get too close but still feel the heat. Enough about work.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Ae primera
Pic 2 N meduse...Deroose no spines.
pic 3 N mini burle marxi fantacy

Hi everyone, hope you and your gardens are all coping with this excessive heat. It's predicted to get even worse for us tomorrow so I might have to take Sue's idea and make it an inside day. Nev it's great to see that your computer is functioning again. I love your Guzmanias and Vrieseas, so colourful and lush looking. I've tried your suggestion of using sphagnum moss on the base of pups and have found that it does work well. The other thing that I've found useful for starting roots is putting the pup base on a bit of styrofoam in the mix. It doesn't sound very environmentally friendly but broms seem to love styrofoam and happily wrap their roots around it. Guess it holds some moisture.
Trish I love your Vrieseas especially 'The Daintree' x 'Illusion'. It looks so fresh with the white middle and pinkish tips. I agree with Nev that Garden City Plastics are reasonably priced and have a good range of pots etc. Sometimes you can be lucky and get a lot of 2nd hand ones in good condition from the recycle centre at the dump or on Gumtree. Wendy is friends with some landscapers who are often happy to get rid of pots. ( And I'm very lucky because Johnny only likes black pots so I score the coloured ones. Thanks Wendy!)Thanks for your info about mixes. It can certainly get expensive as your collection grows. I was mixing up quite a complex brew with ash, natramulch etc. and it works well but one day I visited a young grower who grows his plants very hard with almost everything in full sun. Although they're often burnt they grow quickly and big. He just uses Brunnings potting mix ($3.28 a bag) and 1 inch bark about 50/50. I started trying it just when I ran out of mine but now I use it all the time with the addition of styrofoam for drainage and am very happy with the results at the moment. Thanks for the Ebay seller of 'Yellow on black'. liz.07 (Liz and Wally) live near us and they have some very nice Vrieseas. Must ask them about that one.
Sue your emu is looking good and I like your orange Nidularium. 'Catch you if I can, eh?' That sounds like a challenge! Can you come back and visit me now because I've moved the Crupts and Guzzies into more shade and they look much happier. Also the yellow and red ginger that you gave me is flowering. It's so hot here that I opened up my seedling houses today. Felt sorry for the poor little things. Forgot to tell you I've been spraying them a couple of times a week with a very weak Thrive mix. Richard Harper uses that one on his.
Ian I hope you haven't caught Wendy's flu. It sounds very miserable and being back at work won't help. Must try that Seasol idea. What strength do you use? I've got as far as buying a bottle but am always paranoid about trying anything new on the broms.
Shirley, your new garden around the tree looks great. You certainly have a big area to maintain. Your Aechmeas look good too, very well grown.
Hope you are on the mend Wendy. It sounds very unpleasant. I like your Sunday's Sister. I think that's favouritism that you got a warning from Sue and I didn't. No wonder you didn't sound very surprised when I rang. It's getting late and the old brain is fading fast so time for a few photos and off to bed. A random selection of Aechmeas. Just ask if you want the names. Night all. Jen

Wendy, I reckon being able to get back to work amongst the broms would have to make you feel better. Thanks for the compliments on my new brom garden. The euodia tree in the middle of the garden has a nice canopy and it’s quite leafy so it should protect the broms under it. I will keep an eye on them though seeing as we are going to have record high temps for a couple of days. I hope we don’t get the fires here like they’ve had down south, such terrible destruction and loss of property.

Love your tree full of broms Wendy. Do you pot up the minis first so they have roots when you attach them or do you put them on to the bark bare rooted. I plan to put a few on the lower part of the euodia tree … think I will attach them with nylon stocking as I would hate to harm the euodia. Nice pics of your Sunday neos.

Sue, nice little minis in your pics and luv your brom bird.

Nev, so good to see you back posting. I agree that both neo Leopard and Catlans Leopard are lovely plants. From memory of the pic Trish posted I would say hers is Catlan’s Leopard … I seem to remember it having those lovely colours.

Nev, I have put you down for a pup of neo Devils Ruby. It could be a while as it hasn’t flowered yet but I am sure you’ll still be around ... I have your name on my list for a few of my neos so you better be :o)

Yes, Rebel does have beautiful eyes. I must post a pic of him as a puppy, he was so adorable. We hadn’t planned on getting another dog at that time but one look at him and I knew he had to come home with us.

The seeds from the euodia pods grow very easily, Nev. I removed a number of seedlings when I did the garden makeover. I will have a look about to see if I can find some pods to send you. If not, I am sure there are still seedlings about. Gee Nev, you certainly have a lot of guzmanias for someone who favours neos.

Trish, I followed Nev’s link to neo Catlans Leopard … what a lovely neo, I’m really looking forward to getting one when you have spare pups.

As to Confidor not working well in your friend’s orchid nursery, I have found it to be fairly ineffective this summer when sprayed on pests on my echeverias. I have a few that attract mealy bug and aphids and I have always used Confidor with good results and so I was wondering if they have changed the mix or if the bugs are just becoming immune.

Ian, sounds like really hot work you are doing. I find the heat overwhelming when just working around the yard at the moment … I don’t envy you one bit.

Jen, I will have to try a little Thrive on my vrieseas and see if it helps them along. I will also have to change my potting mix as I have been using Scotts (I think it is) @ $10.95 for 25 litres from Bunnings and went there today and bought 3 bags. I could have bought 3 bags of the cheap one for the price of one. Love your aechmeas Jen, especially Ae Fantasia and also Ae Chantinii

Oops … I have just realised the time and want to get up early in the morning so no brom pics tonight. My one pic is Rebel as a little puppy … how could anyone not love him ?

Hi All – Wow what a day here yesterday! It's supposed to be the hottest day ever recorded here in the Illawarra and they are now saying it was a “Hundred Year Heatwave”; I suppose this is good, because I won't be around to experience the next one in one hundred years time. It's only 28 degrees C here today with a nice cool light breeze blowing so I was at least able to get out this morning and give everything a watering followed by a good dose of "Seasol".

I'm expecting heaps of damage with my plants though, even though I did all of the precautionary things to protect them. At about two in the afternoon here yesterday the air was just so hot it burnt your nostrils and stung the corners of your eyes (47degrees C outside in the shade!) so I expect I'll have a lot of dehydration damage in a few days time because when it gets that hot the cells in the leaves just collapse even under the protection of shade cloth.

I expect I'll probably lose all of the plants that were hanging up high, (about 200) but them's the breaks as everything I could put down on the damp floor was already there and there was no more space left. Fortunately I know from past experience that most of them will still give up a pup or two and the “up side” is that it will give me a bit more space anyway. It's no good complaining when we got off that lightly when many people lost a lot more than just a few plants. Fortunately there has been no loss of life yet due to the fires in this area so that's good at least.

Trish – You speak of your friend who is having trouble with Red Spider on orchids. These were also a pest when I grew orchids many years ago. I found they bred furiously if the plants were grown on the dry side or they were on a bench in a corner where the sprinklers didn't reach. When they were first found we killed them initially with a “contact” insecticide/miticide and this was then followed up a week or so later with a systemic insecticide.

You say Confidor doesn't seem to be doing the trick; I have found Confidor to be a very good “systemic” insecticide but (in my view), like any other insecticide if used all of the time I suspect the insects can build up a resistance to it (in other words they immunise themselves against it) I always alternated between two different insecticides and never used the same one twice in a row for this reason. That's my theory anyway even though many growers will disagree with it.

As Red Spider is a mite, I think your friend needs to use an insecticide/miticide such as YATES MAVRIK INSECTICIDE which is a broad spectrum insecticide/miticide. It is non-toxic to bees and has a short witholding period so if used on veges also, they can be eaten sooner.

I do know that prevention is better than cure and when watering, always water the underside of the leaves as well as the tops as this is where the Red Spider will live and breed and constant watering from below will deter them. I had a friend who grew orchids commercially and when he watered he would put on his swimming costume before he started as he would really give them such a good watering underneath as well as on top he was drenched when he was finished.

Ian – As far as fixing brom's to trees, I have found one of the best methods is to use lengths of the black “bird netting” as it is very strong, won't rot and has plenty of “stretch”. Once tied, pieces of “Old Man's Whiskers” can be used to hide it and complete the job.

It's interesting that you work on rolling stock wheels for the Qld cane trains. It's possible we even have some of your work down here at the Illawarra Light Railway Museum as we have six (now operational) ex. Qld Cane Train Locos which came to us in various stages none of which were working. We have a Hudswell Clarke steam loco and five diesel locos of different types and sizes see: http://ilrms.com.au/

I like the plant in your third pic and when looking for the name I couldn't find it but it does look quite like Neo burle-marxii ssp. Meeana as shown in the Neoregelia species section of the FCBS Photo Index. Both your pic and the pic in the Photo Index both have that unusual colouring in the centre which makes me think they could be the same plant; what do you think?

Jen – Thanks for you useful tip about sitting the base of the pup on the Styrofoam. I haven't tried this one but I've found Styrofoam very good for aerating various potting mixes and I did once grow a brom in nothing else except Styrofoam just to support a statement I made that brom's would grow in/on almost anything. The only thing we need to remember is that as it's an inert substance, it has no nutritional value whatsoever and the plant growing in/on it must be fertilised in some way (I foliar fertilised mine) and grew it on until it eventually flowered. Finally you finished off with a great batch of different Aechmeas - thanks for sharing with us.

Everyone says how generally, Styrofoam is very environmentally unfriendly, but I can think of many areas in brom growing where it is very useful. How about we have a “Think Fest” and everyone give just one use for Styrofoam in relation to growing bromeliads. Jen has already given hers where it is used to promote roots on pups; I've given that it can be used as a growing medium; so what about the rest of you what do you think we can use it for?

Shirley – Thanks for adding my name to the list of friends waiting for a pup of your Devil's Ruby; I guess I'll have to be around now to re-grow any plants that were damaged by the excessive heat. I'll also be very grateful if you can find me a few seeds from your unusual tree and I think if I can grow Poinciana seed down here I can probably grow seed from that one as well.

As for what you say about the Confidor, I doubt that they have changed the formula and think it's more likely what I said in my comments above to Trish.

Well that's about it for today and I'll finish with some pic's of a few of the radial red seedlings I kept. (I think I posted some pic's previously when they were smaller) The cross was Neo. 'Bea Hanson' x Neo 'Rosea Striata'. I hope the heat hasn't caused any damage to them as I want to pot them up and push them along to maturity to see how they'll turn out. There were thirteen I kept in total so I'll post them a few at a time and I'll be interested to hear which one you all think is the best.

Welcome back Nev. It seems you beat us in the 'hottest day' race. We finished on just over 34 degrees, followed by an evening breeze. Today was much the same, and then we got an afternoon storm (7mm of rain) which has cooled things down again.
I hope you haven't suffered too many losses. I think I may have a bit of burn on the bromeliads also, as I never did get the extra shade cloth up, which I usually do in September. Whoops! As you say, most will go on to grow new pups, and the ones that don't make it, provide more space when turfed out.
I'm with you on mixing up the pest control. I often use the Canola oil recipe, and now have found 'Rogor' in a can (great for treating new purchases and susceptible plants) and I also use Malathion, on the odd occasion, but only if I am having severe pest problems. The stuff is so pungent, surely it can't be good? It seems there is a great number of small green grashoppers around the gardens in Coffs at present. I've notice Confidor has no effect on them, so am looking into Carbaryl, but am just paranoid of using chemiclas that require you to suit up and use a respirator. (I do this when using Malathion too) Another good pesticide is Yates Rose Shield, which has the added benefit of a fungicide, which is good in winter around here. (Also must wear and use PPE)
Anyway, Its a bit late here, as I was up early and had a big day in the heat, and really need to put my head down, but maybe I'll have a bit more time and energy tomorrow to comment on everyones newsy and interesting posts.
Ian, your seeds were posted today. I hope they don't get cooked on the way!
Lovely photos everyone.
Sue

Nev, gee, 47 degrees C in the shade, I can’t even image that sort of heat and you are so close to the coast too. I really hope your lovely plants haven’t suffered too much damage. It was very hot here but still only in the low to mid thirties. I guess it’s good that you can be so philosophical about it but then I guess there’s not much you can do to change it.

As to using Styrofoam in relation to growing bromeliads, I use it extensively for ‘temporary’ shelving though it quite often remains in place for very long periods of time. It’s nice and lightweight so it’s easily moved, it doesn’t need to be coated or covered and because it’s white, it brightens up the brom house too. And, the best part … I get mine for free from a local fruit & vege outlet.

Nev, so many different shapes and colours in your neos and all from the same cross. I just love the one in your pic 4, such a lovely shape and colour, love the fingernails too … gorgeous. I would love a pup from that one when it matures. The others are nice too, I especially like the bright colouring of No 5 but No 4 is the standout for me … so far anyway … another 8 to go but I don’t think you can better No 4.

Sue, lucky you to get some rain, we need it so badly here. A lot of my crotons in the gardens are looking pretty stressed. I watered this afternoon but it’s going to be another hot day tomorrow. Sue please let me know if you find something to get rid of those pesky little green grasshoppers, I have never seen so many of them here before and they are chomping away at everything in sight. I bought a lovely little hydrangea called ‘strawberries and cream’ a couple of weeks ago and the little buggers have demolished it despite having sprayed it with Confidor.

Pics are of my vriesea babies 1 is Kiwi Cream, 2 is Fenestralis, 3 is Erotica (?), 4 is a Fosteriana hybrid, which hasn’t flowered yet, 5 is Tiger Tim

Geeze I am hanging out for some time in the garden and it’s only mid week – nearly there – top of the hill looking down and daydreaming about all of my beautiful broms LOL.

Hi Jen pleased to hear you loved my Vr. ‘Daintree x Illusion’, yeah I too adore the white middle and pinkish tips, I am a bit of a sucker for any brom that has white in it and the more white the more I adore the vriesea as they really do stand out amongst the others.

Jen great to hear that you live near Liz and Wally, it’s been so long since I last brought something from them on EBay and I had not kept any of their details other than the print out of my purchase from them of Vr. ‘Yellow on Black’ which does not give much info about seller. Anyway I used to have their details in my brom data base but when our hard-drive crashed so did most of the seller contacts I had entered.

Jen thanks for also letting me know that Garden City Plastics are a great spot to get good range of pots etc; I will have to give them a try.

Jen your brom concoction sounds good, so different to what I use; it is always so interesting to hear what other people use and what results they experience. Jen I liked all the pics of your Aechmeas that look so gorgeous and healthy.

Hi Shirley thanks for passing on that you have found Confidor to be ineffective this summer. Hopefully someone in this Forum will have some helpful advice regarding treatment of Red Spider Mites on Orchids as my friends Orchids are plagued with them at the moment.

Shirley I can’t wait for one of my Neo Catlan’s Leopard’s to pup so I can send you one, I have not seen my mature broms fully burst out into colour yet like the link Nev kindly provided, but as soon as one of them does I will post pics for everyone to see.

Shirley how adorable is that pic you posted of Rebel as a pup, I can totally appreciate that you just had to bring him home, how could you not with that beautiful face he is adorable from top to toe. How nice does a puppy smell when you cuddle it, we have not had a pup for such a long time now as we seem to adopt ones 3year + because it’s harder for the RSPCA to find them a home and we enjoy working with them and seeing them adapt and change to their new environment and that’s when you truly get to see them grow but you need to put the time in with them and exercise them well so they are focused and don’t get bored.

Shirley luved all your vriesea pics you posted tonight – gorgeous.

Hi Nev I looked at Garden City Plastics website you recommended and am impressed with what they stock I will give them a call and compare prices / freight cost etc, my friend who collects orchids is also going to give them a call. Thanks Nev.

Nev hope you don’t loose any broms so that you can get some nice fresh pups off them, my fingers and toes are crossed for you.

Nev thanks for the very helpful advice that I will pass onto my friend tomorrow for the Orchid treating for Red Spider Mite, she is looking at spraying them on the weekend and has gone out to buy all the PPE she needs to protect herself for the big job and she has 300+ Orchids to spray.

Nev in relation to “Think Fest” on how to use Styrofoam in relation to growing broms, what about cutting small round circles out of the bottom of a Styrofoam box to make a stand to hold small seedling pots so the pots are secure and don’t fall over all the time? Or could you cut little backboards out of Styrofoam to tie Till’s to grow on and hang them up? I tend not to use Styrofoam for anything other than your idea, they are great for posting broms in. Anyway, just throwing my crazy ideas out there lol.

Nev I luved Pic 5 the most of Neo ‘Bea Hanson x Neo ‘Rosea Striata’ because both color and stripes appear more intense but missing the shape that Pic 4 has that I picked as the second one I really liked.

Just pics of small python we discovered on our pool fence tonight while Joe was in the pool, it was only small but its hiss made up for its size, I touched it a couple of times to get it moving so I could get some better pics as it was in my brom pots in the beginning so I annoyed him till he or she came out to see what all the fuss was about:

Hi all, just another day here, dry as usual and still hot but nowhere in the 40s.

Nev, the loco wheels i machine are for the local district. I build up the web of the tyres and then machine them to size for further use.Each machining takes some of the size down until there is not enough clearance under the drives, then we fit new tyres. The locos in this district are 0.6.0 made by Clyde ; Baldwin ; Eimco and we have 1 DH .
I will look at that N burle marxi tomorrow. The name I used is the name supplied when i bought it, but it is not the only plant that has had an incorrect name from that supplier.

Sue Rogor was banned at one time because it contains or contained a nerve gas as it's active ingredient. I have seen it on the shelves since and wonder if it is a new product or what is going on.It used to work.
To stop grasshoppers from eating leaves some people use Chilipepper sprayed on the leaves. The chilli burns their mouth and like most of us they don't like it. I have only heard of it being used on veggies so I don't know if it would work or damage broms. If it works then that is 1 less chemical to worry about.
Thanks for sending the seeds today.
Have a good one\
Ian
Pic 1 Til streptophylla in flower
Pic 2 Bil NOID

Hi everyone – The weather's much cooler down here today so more comfortable to get out in the garden.

Nice pic's from everyone, animals as well as brom's, so keep 'em coming.

I think as the topic of insect pests and the use of insecticides has come up, it's timely that a warning about the use of these various insecticides is given. First, make sure there are no suitable natural safe alternatives to use instead of these poisons. If there isn't and you must use one of the many available insecticides, chose an effective one that is known to be low on the toxicity scale.

Quite apart from the basic hygiene of hand washing after handling any type of chemical substance, we must be aware that some of these insecticides can be extremely harmful when they enter the body and entry can be by various means; the most common methods of entry are absorption through the skin or via inhalation.

Poisons can also be accidently ingested usually by a small child. It's common sense to keep all poisons out of reach of children and preferably in a locked poisons cupboard, but what abut during the period when you are preparing them for use. Very important is the way in which these sprays act when diluted with water; most will turn white, the same colour as milk. Because a 1L milk bottle is often used for mixing a small quantity of insecticide because it's a convenient form of measure, if any is left in the milk bottle it can be mistaken for milk and drunk by an unsuspecting child.

There are many cases of child poisonings on record due to this type of accident occurring so never leave these poisons or bottles they were mixed in where they can be reached by children, not even for a minute or two. It is much better to mix them up in a disposable container of some type other than a milk bottle and what ever you use, when finished, make sure it's thoroughly washed out and rinsed several times before wrapping in newspaper and placing in the garbage bin for disposal.

On rare occasions poisoning can also occur by injecting (and I don't mean via a syringe) but it can occur if you are pricked by a plant which has been sprayed with any poisonous substance. So when using these poisons make sure you wear the necessary personal protective equipment, including thick waterproof gloves.

Before you even think about preparing the insecticide for use, read and thoroughly follow all safety directions and be sure you understand what they mean. Also follow the recommendations for wearing the necessary personal protective equipment. Next make sure you understand what is required should you or someone in your family become accidentally contaminated by these particular types of poisons; it's all written on the label so read it!.

If it's an old bottle without a label, DON'T USE IT! Dispose of it in a responsible manner by first contacting your local council for directions on how to dispose of it correctly. Don't just pour it down the drain or throw it in the bin as eventually it will find its way into the environment.

Even though a lot of the older types of poisons such as DDT and Agent Orange and some of the stronger organophospates are no longer used, there are still some very dangerous ones available and as Sue mentioned the use of Rogor in her post I think it is in everyone's best interest to read the excerpt from an article entitled “Gardening: Pest treatment horror file”

Gardening: Pest treatment horror file

WHEN I think back to my earliest recollections of garden insecticides, I am filled with horror at some of the products we used to keep plants free of pests.
One that was commonly used was Arsenate of Lead, which was first used in the 1890s as a method of controlling the gypsy moth. Because it was a very effective insecticide, showing no phytotoxic characteristics, it became very popular with gardeners and stayed that way until it was eventually banned a century later.
It is interesting to note that the banning really didn't come about because of its poisoning potential for humans, but rather because it was difficult to wash the arsenical residue from sprayed fruit.
Arsenate of Lead really disappeared from the market when DDT appeared with great fanfare shortly after World War II.
On the farm where I grew up, and on almost all the farms around the world, DDT became the universal insecticide because you had to spray it only once and every pest died.
It was banned, somewhat controversially, because of its propensity to last for many years in the fatty tissue of animals and fish.
In fact, traces of DDT were found in the fat of Antarctic whales quite some years after it had been banned.
This, of course, elicited the response from supporters of the insecticide who said that because the whales were otherwise in perfect health, DDT wasn't harmful at all. Regardless of the opposition, and its importance to helping control malaria in many of the poorer countries, DDT was banned in the 1970s.
Another deadly poisonous product used by gardeners was Nicotine Sulphate, sold under the trade name of Black Leaf 40. Again this was a very effective broad-spectrum insecticide which also had the potential to kill off any person who was silly enough to drink it.
I sometimes shudder when I see garden writers recommending that gardeners make up their own version of Black Leaf 40. Anyone who is tempted to try this should consider it very carefully as it is a truly toxic brew. Very few countries now manufacture Nicotine Sulphate but I have read that it is still being made and used in India to this day.
As has often occurred, scientists have managed to identify the component in nicotine that kills insects and have been able to formulate it in the laboratory. The product sold as Confidor contains the active ingredient Imidacloprid, which is a nicotine-based insecticide and is only mildly toxic when compared with Black Leaf 40.
While DDT was still in use, around 1950, scientists were working on an organophosphate insecticide which had systemic action and was also effective against a wide range of insects, especially those of the sucking variety. This product was Dimethoate and was sold under the trade name of Rogor.
Again, because it was very effective, it gained a big following of gardeners and even now there are still hundreds of Rogor devotees, despite the fact that some garden product suppliers no longer sell the product.
In recent years the use of Rogor has been the subject of much debate because it has been listed as having suspected links with cancer, as have all the other organophosphate insecticides.
Although the use of Rogor by home gardeners in Australia has never been banned, the majority of garden companies responded by voluntarily taking the product off their range.
Because there was still Rogor available to the retailers, and because some committed gardeners were still buying the product, it hasn't totally disappeared and those gardeners who reckoned it was the only product worthwhile for the control of fruit fly, and other pests on edible crops, were happy.
Well, I'm afraid to say that the happy state for those gardeners and commercial growers is over because the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has determined that it is now illegal to use Rogor on any edible crop.
Fortunately, there are several safer alternatives available, one of which can be used to control fruit fly and that is the product with the active ingredient Spinosad.
This is sold as Nature's Way Fruit Fly Spray or Eco Natralure.
This same active ingredient is also sold as Success which is recommended for a wide range of pests.

Hi all nothing to report from here.
Nev I like #1 from 08-01-13 and # 5 from 09-01-13 the most. They are all nice plants.
I looked at fcbs Neo burle marxii spp Meeana and though the shape looks similar the colour is definitely different. Mine is a mauve solid colour whereas the Meeana is reddish and splotchy. Mine could just have a pet name or the X missing from someones cross breeding. I don't know.
Styrafoan uses. It has insulative properties so could be used for pots or even growing on containers I have a few pot holders made out of it, actually they are trays that hold 50 4"deep 2" square. Good for starting cuttings. It could also be used for landscaping, artifical rocks , logs and walls.. Easy to work and is lightweight. It also helps to float out a potting mix if dunking a pot in a bucket of water. Good if one wants to repot but a nuisance if one does not.
I am having a slack one tonight.
Have a good one
Ian

Hi everyone – Another nice day today, not too hot and with a nice gentle sea breeze blowing. I spent most of yesterday removing dead leaves, tidying up plants and doing a bit of seedling culling and it looks like I'll do a bit more today.

Ian – Thanks for the feedback, when you mention styrofoam can be used for artificial rocks, how exactly do you use it? Is it just shaped and painted or do you put some sort of cement rendering over it to give it a rougher surface and a bit of extra weight?

From what I learned after our last heatwave, it took about five to seven days before the real damage became apparent. It was then that the centres of a lot of the hanging plants took on this really vibrant colour which unfortunately was a sign of crown rot. This was due to the water in the centre of the cups getting so hot that it scalded the new young growth in the centre which soon started to rot. The good part was that almost without exception, these rotted plants threw up two pups before they eventually died. This supports what I've always said about the resilience of these plants, “They are bullet proof”!.

Nothing new to report today except to wish anyone on the sick list well, and I hope you're back posting again soon.

I'll finish firstly with the remaining three pic's of the Neo. 'Bea Hanson' x 'Rosea Striata' seedlings. Pic 4 is just a group shot of a few of the same seedlings and pic 5 is one from the same batch that matured last year. It's nothing much shape wise, but I do like the cup colour and I'm hopeful this batch will all have the same nice red centres also.

Trish, it’s Friday night at last, now you get to have some relaxing time in the garden with all your beautiful broms.

Nev, glad it has cooled down where you live. It’s still way too hot here and still no sign of rain.

Another use for Styrofoam boxes … cut a box to about half its’ height and make small round holes in the lid for placing pups in while you are waiting to pot them up … maybe some damp peat or sphagnum in the bottom to encourage roots.

I liked your pic No 5 in the second lot of seedling pics Nev (I guess that makes it No 10 overall) but I still fancy No 4 in the first lot as the winner … I thought it was a real beauty.

Bree, Rebel is a ridgeback. Can’t wait to see pics of your new broms.

Wendy, hope you are on the mend now. I have been fighting off a bug since well before Xmas and thought I was beating it. I haven’t really been crook just a bit ‘off’ like when you’re coming down with something. Anyway, I had to visit my Dr this morning for something else and she found that I have a chest infection. So I am now on antibiotics for 10 days to clear it up ... and I thought I was winning.

Are you planning another sale yet Wendy.

Ian, I hope you are still enjoying peaceful nights with your grandson, Blade.

Hi to Jen and Sue and anyone else looking in.

We will most likely get up early in the morning and head off to the market to see if there is anything looking to come home with us, though it has been a bit disappointing lately.

Hi everyone
just a quick one as it is already tomorrow. Nev I like the shape of no1 and 4 in the first lot of pics of your seedlings. no3 in the second lot and no 3 in the last lot also have good shape. I'll wait to see the ics of them coloured up at maturity.

we went away for a few days to Hervey Bay but unfortunately we left one of our bags out on the back deck. Of course it was the one with Johnny medication, camera, phone charger and all our toiletries. Unfortunately we had to return home today so Johnny could take his meds again. Don't want him flaring up again for not taking them so best to rush home again. Anyway apparently it was my fault it was left behind. I only carried our bag of clothes, the esky, and another bag leaving only the one bag for Johnny to carry but apparently I should have taken the purple one too. anyway it was lovely to stay with our son and Johnny enjoyed the couple of days in the garden with him. he only missed tablets last night and we'll make up the couple of important ones over next couple days.

We have a couple batches of hieroglyphica seedlings coming on and getting to a good size. Bree I wouldn't have charged you $25 for a hieroglyphica either. It didn't look too much bigger than our biggest lot of seedlings.

Shirley we are going to have a sale on Australia Day weekend although Jen informed me tonight that the Gold Coast meeting is on that Saturday so we may have to have the sale on the Sunday & monday as it is a long weekend. We only planned on doing 2 days anyway. Maybe I'll just miss the meeting this time. I'll see what Johnny says in the morning. He's already in bed after a fall this afternoon. That's 2 good falls in 3 days now but his blood pressure has been OK so not sure if it is heat making him light headed. His face and head seem to be taking the brunt of these falls lately and I'm not sure if he blacks out as he doesn't even put his hands out to stop himself. Wednesdays fall he went backwards and hit the car and had a good egg on back of his head near the nape and today he hurt his shoulder and landed on the side of the face so has a saw jaw with a bit of blood.

Nev Johnny has almost completely covered the back yard with sprinkler misting systems which he turns on every other day for about 5 minutes each section. It is just to keep them cool and moist not drenched. He will give them a good water weekly. this should make life easier on Jen when we go away although I am yet to work out how she can run the sprinklers and water the seedlings at same time when they both come off the tanks. Seedlings might need town water for the time we are away. one more section to go down the back and then he can start o nthe front section.

Pic 1 is our ae beeriana in flower although I should get into the habit of saying vallerandii, but I am sure there was another name too. I'll have to check with Ross Little to see what it is called now.
Pic 4 & 5 are a NOID aechmea we have flowering. It is a lovely mottled plant with a lovely spray but I'm not sure what it is. maybe someone can suggest a name?
Pic 2 is ae rakete grown in high light up close to the shadecloth. I'll have to take a pic tomorrow of it flowering out the front but not nearly as coloured as this one.
Pic 3 is our ae freckles flowering at present also.

Well, I popped in to say hello and tell you all about my new broms,, but theres noone here.
Everyone must be out enjoying the last of the weekend.

I gave in to temptation and bought a few new broms on eBay.
I would have liked some of the nice larger vrieseas but the price went up beyond my pocket money.
There was a very nice Kiwi Sunset that I did bid on but someone liked it better.
I also missed out on vr. Red Dragon.
I am still hoping to win another vriesea. but I only have a certain amount of money to play with.
I did get some nice pups last week. ...neo, eleutheropetal var...vriesea erythrodactylon...neo. Aztec...vriesea platynema and guzmania mini Joyce.

I make do with the smaller pups as they will grow eventually and give me pups of my own.
I finished taking all the pups from my old mothers and have tried the suggestions of using spaghnum moss or florists foam blocks. I'll see what happens with them over the next few months..
Nev, expect a parcel later in the week.

Better go and do more outside while its lovely and cool. Going to be very hot during the week.
Happy gardening . I'll get pics of the broms later.
Jean.

Hi im here...
Shirley- woops yeah ok now i can see the ridge on Rebels back.
Thanks Wendy but i would have paid you $25.00 for a hieroglyphica if i'd have know you had some earlier. I thought it was just Nev that had them.
Photo 1 is tagged Gold Medal but i dont think it looks like it do you? 2. another Red River(couldn't help myself) ha! 3. Moon over Fort Dix. 4. Help me remember this ones name someone please, its not Hannibal or Carcharodon.

The weekend has flown by as we have had things on which has chewed into our weekend but it was nice catching up with friends and kicking back and relaxing.

Have had not had much time to spend in the garden or with my broms except lucky this morning Joe let me know when he was swimming that it looked like a large palm frond in the garden bed looked about ready to come down soon so rather than climb on the roof in this scorching heat I decided to trolley the broms situated under the palm tree out the road instead which was a great move as when I was in the kitchen making quiche for our lunches to have during the week I heard the palm frond come down with an awful thump and where it had landed would have squashed at least half of my beautiful broms so I was very pleased I had gotten them out of the way only a couple of hours earlier.

Hi Shirley I too have a chest infection and am on antibiotics for 10 days and I have an ear infection so feel pretty off balance at the moment and don’t have much energy at all, it was a tough week last week because I worked through it and really felt the heat and was pretty exhausted come Friday. Anyway I hope you’re feeling better now and can sympathize what you are going through.

Hi Dalfyne yeah we respect Python’s and other snakes and if they are in our yard I like to know where they are and what they are up to for the sake of our dogs and I don’t mind handling them (Python’s only – not venomous types) at all with Joe or on my own and have had to get one out of our yard, over the fence and back to the wetlands one morning on my own when Joe was away and I was about to go to work, it took me an 1hr and 15mins to get it out of our yard and was about 8 foot long but by the time I had won the battle it felt like I had just ran a marathon and I was absolutely exhausted back luckily made it to work on time.

Hi Bee that’s a nice Vr. Hieroglyhica you purchased from EBay, have you got room for it in your Orchid Nursery as they need a lot of shade? I do have some in the garden but they are under 70% shade cloth or they just get fried. Look forward to seeing some of the other broms you got.

Nev & Sue, my friend with the Red Spider Mite infestation wanted to pass on her thanks for provided pest control information that she will more than likely try on the weekend.

Hi Nev thanks for all the information and link you provided in relation to Pest Treatment Horror File and what you wrote about insect pests and insecticides and how to handle them with care and proper PPE. I found all this information very interesting to read, thanks once again.

Hi Wendy my Dad lives in Hervey Bay. I too get blamed if we go away and leave something at home, I don’t think they realize how much running around we do trying to get the bags packed and get the house and garden ready before we go away, it’s really exhausting and then you have to load up the car. Hope you’re feeling better too now Wendy and Johnny also

I really liked all the broms pics that everyone posted these past couple of days. Looks like things have been pretty quiet lately, it is usually this time of year that everyone seems to get summer colds and chest infections etc, there is a bit of everything going around at the moment.

Might go and split some broms up when it cools down a little outside and that will be all the energy I have to manage for today, there is always next weekend when our weekend is quieter and I'm feeling much better.

Hi Jean and Bree we must have all been posted at the same time ha ha...

Looks like the both of you have been busy shopping by the sounds of Jeans thread and the lovely pics from Bree.

Bree I don't know what your pic four is but I like it a lot? Also like pic 1 but don't know what it's supposed to look like?

Jean yeah I have been watching the same broms you have been looking at on EBay but have used what little will power I have to not buy any as I have enough to do around the garden at present to keep me occupied.

Trish i love your Neo ‘Catlan’s Leopard’. Yeah my Vr. Hieroglyhica is in the bottom of my shade house for the moment. Im getting another front garden going which is shadier but i think the bandicoots are getting into it. My dog usually ends that quickly though. Could be bush rats too.
My big Exotica Velvet i got from Sue. thanks Sue!

Hi all, Been doing a bit of house claening, too hot for outside work. I separated Vr splendens and hope that it will work out the way it is supposed to. I did not use rooting powder and have just planted them in scoria and am keeping them in a humid situation, plenty of light but no sun.

Wendy I think your Pic 4 is Ae Lueddemanniana . I would say that Pic 5 Is Ae fendleri.

Nev I glue pieces of styrofoam together and either carve it to shape afterwards or break bits to shape and glue them together with woodworking glue, depending on what texture I want. Then I stake the pieces with a piece of steel. They can be painted with a waterbased house paint. Another interesting finish could be achieved with a paintbrush and petrol.Petrol will dissolve it but could be controlled with a brush, gently Bently
Talking about chemicals, I well remember using dieldren and ddt when dipping sheep in the late50s and early 60s. There was no protection more than a pair of shorts and boots, then get in with the sheep and move them out making room for the next lot. I wonder what side effects I can look forward to in the future. I also used arsenic pentoxide to kill prickly pear and still have the spear, locked safely away now. Maybe thank God for progress and information.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Til streptophylla
Pic 2 Bill Noid

Evening all, so good to see everyone back … well, almost everyone anyway. Another really hot day here today, so hot that we hardly ventured outside. The grass has gone brown and so many big plants in the garden are beginning to look stressed and starting to wilt.

Wendy, sounds like you had a bit of a rushed trip home from Hervey Bay … too bad YOU left the bag containing Johnny’s medication, camera, charger etc at home. I get the blame if something gets left behind when we go away as well. I hope Johnny is OK after his falls.

Jean, looking forward to seeing pics of your new broms.

Bree, maybe your neo with the forgotten name is Governors Plea, that’s another one I would like to get.

Trish, good thing you moved your broms from under that palm tree, those dead fronds certainly come down with some force. I hope you are getting over your bug. I just love your neo Catlan’s Leopard, it’s gorgeous.

Nev, I haven’t forgotten about your Euodia seeds. I looked for some today and there were none about. The tree is obviously just coming into flower rather than almost finished … nothing wrong with me!!! So, in a few weeks there should be lots and lots of seed pods dropping on my new brom garden below. I will post another pic when it is in full bloom and full of King parrots.

Hi to Sue, Jen, Ian and Colleen.

Now to find some pics. 1 is neo Strawberry x Little Africa, 2 is neo Fury

Hi Bree pleased to hear you liked my Neo 'Catlan's Leopard' I am really looking forward to getting pups off the one's I have. Also pleased to hear you worked out what the name of the brom was that you were trying to identify. I have Hannibal Lector, Governors Plea and just came to realise today that I have Norman Bates, I think I just brought it before Xmas but purchases were a bit of a blur then with so much going on leading up to our break over Xmas and having visitors. Glad to hear you are putting in a new garden bed for your broms, it does not take long to fill them up and need more room for more lol. That Pic 2 of yours looks like Neo 'Lila', it's very pretty I really like that one.

Hi Shirley yes I was really pleased I moved my broms to save them from the fall of the large palm frond, now I have to move them once again to cut the large seed pods that are opening up before it drops mess in my broms, forgot totally to check if it was going to produce one or not. Really liked your Pic 1 of Neo Strawberry x Little Africa, what a nice combination. I too have Neo 'Fury' and luv it, initially it appeared to be slow growing but had grown heaps when I last checked.

Hi eveyone. just a quick one tonight as that flu is making a return run. the throat is killing me again and my voice is getting very croaky again.

Trish I think your pic 1 is actually neo kiku. it's a lovely good sized neo. love those large spots. will get a pic of mine tomorrow. Your hula girl is looking really great also.

Ian in my last post pic 4 & 5 were actually the same plant. If I went by the infloresence alone I would have said fendleri too but the mottled plant says it is not.

I have another couple of those neo little africa x strawberry like SHirley's if anyone wants one. If you get a spot with just the right amount of sun you get some lovely colour. I've had them in too much sun and they bleach and not enough sun and you get a really pale washed out colour. I think I've worked out the best spots for just that right amount of afternoon pure sun and get that brilliant chocolate patches.

We are planning another sale for the Australia Day long weekend. Johnny is keen to do all 3 days so hope Monday is not too busy so Jen can rest up for school again next week.
I'm off to bed now to rest this throat again.
Night all
Wendy

Hi all, it’s a bit cooler here tonight, thank heavens … just wish we would get some rain.

Sounds like just about everyone is crook, lots of bugs going about.

Trish, love your neo Nikiko / Kiku, it’s unusual and very pretty.

Wendy, sorry to hear you are losing the flu battle. I am actually on the mend, not that I was really sick anyway … still a bit of a cough and sore throat. Hopefully, we will get over to see you when you have your sale.

Does anyone have a variegated Vriesea Philippo Coburgii for sale or swap. I saw a lovely big one for sale not so long ago and at a very reasonable price. I didn’t buy it as there were so many others I wanted … have been kicking myself ever since.

here I am, here I am.
Sorry everyone I've had a busy weekend and still more business to come so forgive me if I am a bit lax on my replies.
Shirley, your variegated Vrieseas are gorgeous! I saw a very large V. 'Rafael' at the Chandler markets some time ago, on a visit to Qld, and it was $50! I am kicking myself that I didn't buy it either. Unfortunately I don't have one to share with you :(
Sorry to hear you are under the weather, along with Trish, Wendy and Johnny (with his falls) but glad to hear you feel as though you are on the mend.
Bree, I would love to see some of your garden as it gets its bromeliad makeover. I love those Tiger stripe Neos, but must admit, the hannibal series look too similar for me to warrant buying the lot. I have my N. 'Hannibal Lector' F2 seedlings, which are all slightly different, so they keep me happy.
Nev, I hope you are getting enough time off from the joys of bromeliad growing, to spend quality time with your family? thanks for all the info on the nastines of pesticides. There is alot of info to be found on the internet, and no excuse for not reading the label. I don't even use fly spray in the house (outside for paper wasps and mossie havens) and prefer the insects to the poison. less damaging? There are some good organic methods of control for insect pests, but you have to be pretty dedicated as they are hands on and often time consuming. I am lucky enough to have alot of Assasin bugs and preying mantis, as well as huntsman spiders and frogs, so most other insects are taken care of, but scale gets by. This year we had swarms of lady birds, and these, coupled with my monitoring have helped to keep the scale from the citrus and the aphids off the cordylines. I was rescuing up to 200 a day out of the pool and relocating them to affected plants. have I told everyone all this before? If so, sorry to repeat!
Ian, I hope you don't suffer any ill effects from the exposure you have had. I have this horrible feeling that we have all been exposed to bad chemicals, through produce that has been grown with carcenogenic chemicals in the distant past. I try not to think about it too much, and enjoy eating what I like, and get the most out of life now. I tried the whole organic lifestyle a few years back and found I was getting mentally stressed by worry, which I think was more damaging to my health than anything previous. Its nice to grow your own produce, but who has the time?
Wendy, that must have been annoying to have left the important bag behind! That sort of thing goes on here too, but I have learned to check that the mediction is on board before we leave, as well as the wallet and spectacles! Hubby is notorious for leaving the important things behind, so
I always ask before we drive. I'm glad you enjoyed your quick trip anyway, and hope Johnny doesn't repeat too many more of those falls. Good luck with your Australia day sales.
Jean, you're not a bromelid addict...nooooooo! heh heh. Its nice to know you are enjoying your broms, even though you are tied up with all your other plant loves. How has your weather been? Isn't your hubby part of the bush fire brigade team? Has he been busy down your way?
Trish, I am glad you managed to save your broms from the palm frond. Now to put them all back. I hope you start to recover from your chest infection soon. Summer sickness is the worst.
Hello to anyone else lurking out there. Don't be shy. Tell us where you are from, what broms you have and a few photos wouldn't go astray.
Speaking of photos, i think my camera is still out in the car, so none to add today. Seems a bit cheeky to make you read this big long post and have no prize at the end! Sorry about that.
I'll check back in when i can and pop a few pics on then.
Later
Sue

Hi all, just another hot dry day here. It is good to see a few famiar faces here and some very nice pics also.I recieved seeds from Sue today and have already planted some of them. Thanks Sue.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 CCrypt Fosters lace
Pic 2 Crypt green ice

Hi Sue, I thought you must have gone on another holiday … sorry to hear its work keeping you away.

I managed to do a bit in the garden today but not as much as I would have liked. I spent about an hour searching for my camera. I remembered taking photos in the shade house and I thought I must have put it down somewhere. I searched the house, the back patio and shade houses … no camera. Finally I remembered taking some photos out the front of the house and there it was sitting on the table on the front patio. I should use the camera in my mobile phone, then at least I could ring it to find it.

It turned out to be quite a hot day again. This morning it was cooler and even looked like rain, then cleared up and got hot. We actually did get about 2 minutes of rain this afternoon , just enough to wet the washing that I should have taken in earlier. I rushed to get it in and it stopped raining about the same time I finished ripping the clothes off the line.

Jean, some lovely broms you have there, I especially like your bill Kyoto. I have bid on one a couple of times on eBay but haven’t yet been successful.

Hi to everyone else looking in.

I have a couple of pics of an Ananas, not sure of its’ name, maybe it’s Ananas Nanus as it’s a miniature and so cute. The fruit is about one inch in height at the moment on a tall stem and it has little blue flowers on it. If anyone can give me an ID, that would be great.

Shirley. I bought my bil. Kyoto as a small pup a few years ago. If you look closely, the long leaves at the back of the pic is that original, now an old mum with a hail grown pup pup still attached plus a new one forming. .
The two in front are her pups, just removed from her.
If you would like one, Dmail me your details and I'll post one up to you.
Jean.

Hi everyone - Well it's everything back to normal today as my son and grandson have just left on their way back to Bali after a lovely seven day visit with us to celebrate my wife's birthday.

Today's job is to tidy up the floor of the Neo shade house and put some fine mulch on the floor to hold a bit of moisture during the hot days. I've now got the “wind shutters” finally finished and it seems they are doing the job they were designed to do when they are closed and don't detract from the plants too much when they are open.

It seems as though I've been very lucky with the very hot day we had here as it caused very little damage. The only plants to suffer were the ones in full sun which I couldn't remove as they were planted in the ground and which I didn't worry too much about as I had spares under cover anyhow. One was a large Vr Phillipo-cobergii with three flower spikes coming and which suffered a bit of burning and the others were a few Neo's in an exposed part of the garden; so all in all I got off pretty lightly compared to others in our area.

I definitely put my low level of sun damage down to the fact that I “Seasolled” every two weeks leading up to the hot weather and also during the late afternoons on the day before and after the heatwave. I also had a similar result after using it during a previous heatwave which was on a New Years Day a few years back and I can definitely recommend it as a good product.

As well as helping with heat stress it is also good at providing extra protection against the cold during the winter months; all this as well as the fact that it's a great tonic to build up plants strength, "well being" and resistance to disease. I know I sound like a “Seasol Salesman” but I'm not; I just like to “spread the word” to my friends if I find a good product, and likewise if I find a “dud” as well.

I'll get off the old soap box now and post a few more pic's of the Vrieseas and Guzmanias to finish with.

Hello everyone,
I had a giggle at some of the posts, especially your comment Nev about us still being into prickly ones, ha ha ha.
I have read way too much to address everyone individually, so I'll just say, that the photos of everyone broms are fantastic. You have all been very busy it seems and sounds like we have all been dealing with this shocking heat. Not just up north. Nev so glad you don't seem to have had too much damage, your temps were just crazy! I have never actually taken the temp outside in the shade, so I'll have to do that on a hot day just out of curiosity. Inside here gets very hot here as we are not in a 'normal' house, so often it's far cooler to sit outside under the palms by the brom house and play with the hose to cool down. It is raining this morning so it's a bit cooler... I just hope the humidity isn't too bad later when the rain stops and the sun comes out...uggghhhh.
Well we have been selling off quite a few broms in the last week or two, well... a lot for us... not even a drop in the ocean compared to some peoples sales, lol. We have a little garden trolley and have sold 3 full trolleys full locally, (cheaply) and sold a few on ebay too. I can see some space... but then I take some pups off and space gone! But we have come to a decision that although we love them all and can never decide what to get rid of, that some just have to go, completely. Unfortunately we don't own where we live so it's a very real fact that we will have to move them one day, and the more crowded they are... it seems to be the more expensive ones that suffer, the cheapies seem more robust. So it's that constant balancing act, the cheaper ones are good and some of them are my favourites, easy to sell as average non brom obsessed gardeners will buy them, easy to look after and pup well. But then I have some other favourites that have cost a lot of money and they need room and air flow so they don't get sick or overheated as it's upsetting when you loose one that has cost a lot of money. So I can't crowd the brom house up too much. So we make these decisions... some have to go for the benefit of the rest... but then you walk through the brom house and can't pick which ones have to go. But we have done well to get rid of about 40 recently and that has made a bit of a difference.
Grasshoppers. I noticed it was mentioned earlier. Is there a spray you can use? Or is it just a manual seek and destroy type scenario. Our little brom house we made for pups and old mums has been getting attacked, I am always hunting for them, but they are just chewing holes in everything. the idea is to put pups in that little brom house to get roots and be able to sell them, or for the old mums to grow their pups out ready to be removed... but then they are full of holes!
Well I don't know what's going on, but a few of the pups we brought in the last 2 months are now coming into flower! They are really big growers, but have probably only just started getting their roots, and now have flowers, bugger. Wait for pups now and try to grow them to full size.
Well not much else to say right now, the rain has stopped and it's getting warm now. Better get a move on.
Just a couple of shots in the brom house, so nice to how big they are now, they were all once little pups with not a lot of colour :)
Cheers Tash

Hi all, another hot one here today and still no rain. While we have been having these extreme temperatures I go around the gardens around 11.00 am and throw pieces of shadecloth over a few plants that I want to make sure don't get burnt and then uncover them again around 4.00 pm when it cools down a bit. Everything is in dire need of a good drink.

Jean, I would love one of your bill Kyoto pups and have sent you a Dmail, thanks heaps.

Nev, glad you had a lovely visit from your son and grandson for your wife’s birthday and it’s good to hear your plants didn’t suffer too much burn during the heatwave.

Tash, great to hear from you. I have seen some of your lovely broms on eBay. I love the Ae Samurai you have listed at the moment ... stunning. It will probably be a few years before I cross that off my wish list though, LOL. I am still having problems with the grasshoppers here, I’ve never seen so many of the little buggers. Let me know if you find a way of dealing with them.

Tash, I remember a little while back that Sue mentioned that pups which were removed when it’s very warm often flower prematurely … at least I think that was what she said. Maybe Sue can help you more with that one. Your brom house looks great.

Bree, what a shame your neos got burnt like that, hope they recover. I’m with you, neo Cee Bee is a real beauty.

Wendy, is it OK with you if we do the usual pre sale visit to you on the Friday before the long weekend of the sale … just to miss the weekend traffic snarl, mind you :o)

Wish I had some new photos to share, I’ll see what I can find …

Pic 1 is a large NOID neo, pic 2 is an unnamed vriesea hybrid, pic 3 is of some broms I tied to the Euodia tree above the new brom garden. I tied them on with nylon stockings but a couple of them were still a bit wobbly so I used cable ties to make them secure. Check out the brown and dying grass.

Hi everyone - Looks like another nice day today although they are forecasting extreme heat (although not as bad as the heatwave day) for the remainder of the week so some early morning damping down to be done this this morning.

Tash – It's great to see you posting again and those Neo's in your first pic with the “breathtaking” colours are magnificent although I can't say I'm so fond of the “bench of prickles” in the second pic.Ha! Ha!

That's really good info about thinning out your brom's; it's something we never think about when we are first starting off as all we can think of is getting more to add to the collection. There is however a time when we all will have to start to cull a few plants and the number culled depends on the size of our collections.

As you say, if theses plants aren't thinned out, it leads to overcrowding and loss of valuable air circulation around plants which eventually leads to disease and eventually losses; but have you ever noticed that when plants die from this cause, it's always the good ones and never the “cheapies” that suffer? I guess the better ones have a more complex genetic make up and are not as strong as the more common ones which are obviously more robust hence the reason for them becoming so common. Some of these common plants can still have a purpose as parents in breeding programmes though as they can sometimes be used to pass on their vigor to the hybrid seedlings and “inject some new blood into the strain” so to speak.

I will cull plants from the benches in the shade house and these will go into the garden to replace some of the plants of lesser quality in there, and as I continue to cull, the quality of the plants in the garden improves as well as those in the main collection.

I think “culling” is the most difficult part of brom growing and something I never think I'll get used to doing. It's even harder with young seedlings as I continually ask myself if maybe some of these culled plants wouldn't have grown to maturity and been "outstanding" plants. But space in the shade house will dictate how many plants you can comfortably accommodate and the rest have to go by some means, either culling or giving to growers just starting out.

Quite often a plant which is destined for the bin will be admired by someone else for some feature in it that appeals to them personally and instantly you have found it a home, so maybe we should just put our “culls”out the front with a “free to a good home” sign on them.

Grasshoppers have always been and always will be a problem in this country and I have found that insecticides (which also poison the environment) are rarely effective as a control. I find that early morning during watering (especially under the leaves where these pests will hide) will flush them out and at this stage they are very sluggish and easy to catch. I can also guarantee that a grasshopper can do no more damage after you have caught it and pulled off its head; so there's your answer.

As for the correct time to remove pups, well yes there is a right and a wrong time, but when you have a large collection like I have, you have to remove them all through the year just to keep on top of them. I now tend to let my pups grow to almost adult size before removing them as I simple don't have the space to accommodate continued production of masses of pups and I find this doesn't disrupt the growing cycle and you get a better stronger pup. The down side is that if you're looking at increasing numbers, you won't get as many so the decision on when to take them is yours.

Breeindy – The plant in your fist pic looks just like some of my plants did after our first heat wave. This was caused by the water in the cup getting so hot that it scalded the tender new young leaves. If the damage has gone right down to the bottom of the well, the centre growing tip will die and the plant will start to rot. If this happens, cut out the rotten part, allow the damaged centre of the plant to dry out for a few days and then re-pot it and it will eventually give you some pups.

Although “unsightly”, the damage to the plant in the second pic is not so severe. This is often caused by a large droplet of water lying on the area of a leaf which causes it to act like a magnifying glass when the sun shines onto it. In your case it looks like the water was trapped between the two leaves but the end result was the same, scalds to both leaves. It works in much the same way as a magnifying glass does when the light is concentrated from it onto a piece of paper which eventually will start it burning. To treat the problem, just trim back the dead part of the leaves to the same shape as the ends of the other leaves and it will look instantly much better.

Shirley – It's surprising just how much damage can be prevented by just throwing scraps of shade cloth over plants to protect them from the sun. I once went to a friends place during a very hot day and he had done the same to his vegetable garden. As well as shade cloth scraps, he had newspaper and palm branches strategically placed all around the garden to protect his plants. I must say it looked terribly untidy, but it did prevent any damage from the sun.

Once again you've shown that even plants without names can still look attractive with pic's 1 and 2 being fine examples. As for tying plants to trees, it doesn't really matter what you use as long as the most important step in mounting plants is carried out and that is THEY MUST NOT BE ABLE TO MOVE ONCE MOUNTED. While ever they can move, their roots won't attach to the host tree and consequently they are forever dependent on what ever is used as a tie. Another thing growers often over look when mounting plants on trees, is the fact that due to better air circulation, they will dry out much quicker and consequently need more watering. To improve slightly on natural growing methods, they will also appreciate occasional foliar fertilising to give them that “extra boost”. Just be aware that in extreme cases where the plant and the tree grow quickly, the cable ties can cut into the plant and cause damage, so as soon as it's attached, remove the cable tie to prevent this.

Just a few random pic's to finish with, Pic.1 shows some Ae Foster's Favourite just after mounting. "Old Man's Whiskers" has been used to hide the ties. Pic.2 shows the same mounting (approx) nine months later when things had started to grow. Pic.3 shows another mounting on a Paper Bark branch. In this case it's necessary to remove part of the bark so the plant can attach directly onto the wood and not the papery bark as this will gradually peel off and doesn't make a good attaching point. Pic.4 is a hybrid from two of the larger growing Aechmea species Ae. Blanchetiana x Ae. Eurycorymbus and Pic.5 is my favourite Ae Recurvata type Ae Recurvata 'Blushing Pineapple' (unregistered)

Just a very quick look in tonight as still feel like crap with this chest infection which I just can't seem to shake (week 2) drugs doctor perscribed don't appear to be working, managing to get though this week at work but as soon as I get home I crash and burn bigtime and all I want to do is sleep but hold off as long as I can in the hope of getting a good nights sleep as I normally cough myself awake often during the night.

Anyway I managed to read everyone's wonderful threads and had a look at everyone's beautiful brom pictures and hopefully over the weekend I can chat with you all and respond to messages read but needing response.

We got some nice rain yesterday and today which was nice and I think the weather man is predicting more for the weekend. It looks close to being the start of the wet season for us, it just has that feel about it?

Hanging out big time for some time with my broms!

Sorry no pics tonight...

Speak soon and Happy Gardening!

Trish

P.s - Nev do you rip the heads off Grasshoppers like I do? I find them easy to catch in the mornings as they move slower. My friend catches them and freezes them and then like me ends up putting them in the compost bin. LOL

Hi everyone – It's starting to warm up here this morning and they have forecast another “hot one” expected to be in the high thirties or low forties, let's hope they've got it wrong.

Trish – Sorry to hear you still haven't shaken that rotten “wog”. Maybe you're overworking yourself and are a bit “run down” and that's the reason. Maybe a dose of “Seasol” would perk you up a bit, Ha! Ha!. I shouldn't laugh though as there's nothing can make you feel more miserable than a summer cold or worse still, the flu.

Like you I catch my grasshoppers in the mornings when they are slower particularly while I am watering as they like to hide beneath the leaves and this seems to flush them out. I just pull off the heads and toss them out on the grass and either the Magpies or Seagulls will get rid of the rest of them for me.

Shirley – the Ae. Recurvata 'Blushing Pineapple' (unreg.) is a pretty good grower and pupper and for me reaches a height of around 8 – 9 inches. The one in the pic was a pup growing off the side of another which was in a 5 inch pot.

Your plant in Pic.2 looks very much like Neo 'Glorious' which is one of the many “Aussie Dream” grex bred by Bob Larnach.

I don't know where everyone is but I hope you're all back soon and as usual a big “cherrio” to anyone on the sick list and get well soon.

I'll finish with firstly some pic's of my now finished “wind shutters” in the open position (Pic's. 1,2 and 3); notice the cooked tree fern compliments of the heatwave last Thursday week. Pic 4 shows a bit more heat damage, this time to a Vr. Phillipo Cobergii, however not as bad as it looks, Pic 5 shows a group of Portea Petropolitana Extensa flowering in the front garden and which weren't damaged by the heat at all.

Hi everyone – Remember when I said at least I wouldn't be around for the next 100 year heatwave? Well I was wrong; very wrong as this afternoon was even hotter than the last one the previous week. It was then 47 degrees C out in the yard in the shade and today it was 50 + degrees in the same spot. It was so unbelievably hot that I couldn't even move my ute into the yard as the door handle was so hot I couldn't open it.

The same thermometer I used last week went off the scale (50 degrees C) (see pic 1) and the red liquid is still stuck at the very top and has now left it looking like a dotted line – in other words it's “buggered.”

It was 47 in the main shade house even after I had previously soaked all the plants and damped down the floor and under the benches this morning so I'm just dreading what I'll see in a week or two when the damage becomes more evident.

The plants I was so proud of having saved from last week's effort will no doubt die this time as they would have already been under stress and even though I watered and damped down this morning and did the same again late this afternoon and will hit them all with Seasol in the morning, I expect I'm flogging a dead horse as there's just so much you can do, and I feel that I've done all I can.

As usual I'll finish with some pictures, but this time they tell the story of the heatwave. First is Pic 1 showing the thermometer stuck above 50. The next four show what happened to some Neo's in the garden, almost completely cooked. Fortunately they were just seedling culls so no real value, but more work to replace them nevertheless.

All the best, Nev.

P.S. On a positive note, my computer is still working OK in this heat.

Hi all, just another hot and dry day today, only high 30s. i am lucky as I watered yesterday and gave them a light seasol spray today. I have not noticed any heat damage as yet.
I have noticed 2 Ananas tricolour seeds germinated so far. I wonder if they will carry the colour or even if they may be albinos. Time will tell. I was thinking of potting up some more seedlings tomorrow but I will have to wait and see what the weather does.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Ae primera flower not as yet fully open but showing elongated central stripe.
Pic 2 Pitcairnia spicata in flower

Hello all, another very hot day here but nothing like the 50 degree temp that Nev experienced today. I can’t even imagine it being that hot … must be like stepping into an oven almost.

Nev, your shutters look great but what a shame so many of your broms were cooked today. Even though you say most of the damaged neos were seedling culls and of little value, they looked pretty good to me, showing some lovely colour.

Glad to hear your computer is still working OK … that’s some consolation, I guess.

Ian, sounds like the same story everywhere, hot and dry. Like you, we had temps of mid to high thirties and we sure could use some rain.

I hope everyone else is keeping well and will soon be back posting again.

hello, here I am. Still reading all the posts and catching up.
Ian, I am glad the seeds arrived. I hope you get some good growing weather so you can sow some more and repot seedlings. I have a Pitcairnia that was labelled paniculata, and it isn't, but seeing your pic of Pit. spicata, I'm wondering if that might be it? If i can find a photo, I will attach it.
Nev, that heat sounds atrocious. I have been keeping cool with regular swims and cold showers. Theres not much else that I can do, no air con! All your photos are lovely, and I am glad you have been getting some good time in with your son. I hope you don't get a return of the hot weather, and that there isn't too much damage to your plants.
Hi Bree, I've not heard of Neo. 'Fruitcake' where did you get it? There is a trick with your variegated A. blanchettiana, and that is to keep it slightly shaded, and well fed (fertilised) They seem to lose the variegation in too much light. You have been posting lots of lovely pictures lately
Shirley, I grew alot of seed from Neo. 'Fiesta' (F2s) and most are pretty wishy washy, but have nice shape. I think they need crossing with something more colourful? Imagine an N. 'jewellery shop' with the N. 'Fiesta' shape! that would be nice. Your NOID Neo looks familiar, but once again, i cannot put my finger on it. I love your Ananas photos!
Trish, I hope you get well soon! Seems you've been sick for way too long! Are you taking enough time off work to kick it? Maybe some cooler weather would help!
Tash, nice to see you dropping in to post now and then. I keep my eyey on you on FB and can see you are a busy little vegemite, so fully understand the time factor. I hope you do well with your Ebay sales.
Jean, new broms? Did i read right? oh dear! I like your idea of florist foam to put the new pups in. I've not heard of or thought of that as an idea for pups, but it makes sense. thanks for all the photos.
Hello to Wendy, Jen and Kristi (if you look in)
Well, I had better see what photos I have for you.
photo one is some hanging minis and xNeophytum 'Galactic Warrior' from Nev
photo two is the Pitcairnia. It has the same foliage as yours Ian, what do you think?
photo three is not technically of bromeliads, although I did get an Aehmea blanchettiana in there. It is mostly about the heliconia rostratas. The best flowering I've had yet, although the leaves are very wind damaged.
talk again soon
Sue
Sue

Managed to sneak in some time with my broms today mainly splitting up pups like I really needed to as some pups were well established, open and colouring up well and needed their own pot. I popped some of the mums into the retirement village as I had taken at least two or three pups off them so are near their used by date but reckon I might get a couple more off them before they have had it.

It’s been over cast and raining today which has really cooled things off, all you can hear ringing in your ears are the frogs and cicadas, they both nearly block out the bird noises you would normally hear throughout the day. It’s like they heard me the frogs are getting louder, more rain must be near.

Hi Wendy hope you’re over that dreaded flue of yours and that Johnny has recovered from his falls. Finally replying to your post from the 14th Jan where you say you think my Pic 1 posted on 14th Jan of Neo ‘Nikiko’ is actually Neo ‘Kiku’. Thanks Wendy would be great if you could post a pic of yours for comparison as I brought Nikiko from a seller in Far North Qld and that what they had it labelled? I have tried googling info on both but can find nothing? Yeah Neo ‘Hula Girl’ is doing great and I just discovered some pups on her today which is great because I really want a few more of her around the garden as she is nice, big and colourful.

Wendy when you get a chance could you please post pic of how Johnny cuts Golden Canes to display specimen plant as I might give it a go for that big one out front you commented about last time - thanks.

Hi Shirley pleased to hear you are feeling much better, also pleased to hear your liked Neo ‘Nikiko / Kiku??? I too think that it is unusual and very pretty. Shirley luved those stripey vriesea pics you posted on 14th Jan, I only have Sunset and one similar to Highway Beauty which is called RoRo but Highway Beauty far nicer and is on my wish list along with Galaxy. Unfortunately I don’t have a variegated Vriesea Philippo Coburgii only the plain type one. Did you end up finding one? Shirley sorry to hear you are having a great deal of grasshopper trouble, off with their head I say, works for me and Nev but you have to catch them early when they are sluggish.

Shirley luved all the broms pics you posted on 17 Jan, real nice and full of great colour.

Hi Sue thanks still feel like crap but have more energy now since I had a good night sleep (slept till 9am) which is not like me at all as I am an early riser normally, I think I could have slept longer but decided to get up and take the girls for a walk on the beach instead and we grabbed a takeaway coffee and read the paper there for a couple of hours and it was really pleasant because it was overcast and there was a nice breeze blowing.

Sue we too get a lot of lady birds, huntsman spiders, frogs, preying mantis, they really do help with the pests and I tread them with the utmost respect apart from the grasshoppers that I am unkind too.

Rain is coming down hard now and our house is filled with the smell because we have all the doors and windows opened and the air-con off.

Hi Jean, nice brom pics you posted on 14 Jan, you’re definitely addicted to broms now we just need to hear you admit it LOL. Sue said similar the other day and made me laugh. You know we are just going to keep annoying you now until you admit it.

Jean also good to see that like me you too keep your old mum broms. I took a couple of pups of some very, very old mums a couple of weeks ago and was thinking about throwing the mums out because they have nearly had it but decided to throw them both in an empty pot and checked on them today and found 4 pups on each of them, so it just goes to show it is worth keeping them if you have the room, I just spray my old mums to keep disease away best I can and keep them in quarantine, then usually cut the mum away when the pups are big enough to survive on their own I split and pot them up.

Hi Nev glad to hear you had a great time with your son and grandson. It would have been great having them there to help celebrate your wife’s birthday. Wish her a Happy belated Birthday from us.

Nev sounds like your copping some shocking heat there; I hope you don’t lose any broms and that if any did get damaged that they produce some lovely pups for you. That’s what I truly admire about broms how tough they are, if it was any other plant in the garden there would be no coming back but a brom in shock, flattened or dying has that survival mechanism that kick’s in so quickly and before you know it you’re blessed with more pups than you could have possibly imagined it could have produced and the cycle continues – and that’s why I am addicted to broms.

Nev you’re shade house’s looks fantastic along with those wonderful shutters. I would luv to have that type of setup here but our garden is the wrong shape for that (long) which would make it look like one big long nursery which we are trying to avoid given the amount of shade cloth we already have up here and there temporarily to protect some of the broms that need it.

Yeah Nev I reckon your right I need a dose of “Seasole” to perk me up a bit LOL – thanks I needed a good laugh. Yeah I reckon your right maybe I’m a bit run down, that’s exactly how I feel, no energy and work has been pretty hectic but that’s the type of industry I’m in and normally I get a buzz out of being so busy and my brain getting a real good work out but I think a lot of it has to do with me (admitting) that I am getting older and I seem to be feeling the heat a lot more than I used to out on the job site and those stairs when I have to climb them LOL. After the small break we had I am still craving holiday’s big time and regretting I went back so soon, so I am really looking forward to the up and coming long weekend and maybe another sleep in might do me the world of good.

Hi Tash awesome brom pics “all of them” I want LOL. I have some of them but when you see them looking that fantastic you just want more of them don’t you in the nursery and garden because they really do make a statement. They look so healthy and full of colour, you are doing a fantastic job with them. Pleased to see you are selling some locally and on EBay, I saw Ae. Samurai you had on EBay the other day, very nice brom indeed.

Hi Bree never heard of your Pic 1 Neo ‘Fruit Cake’ it looks like it’s going to get a lot of purple markings – nice. Apologies I still have to get a parcel in the mail to you, will do as soon as I am feeling better promise.

Hi Ian nice broms pics you have posted this past week, sounds like you have been busy in the garden, it’s never ended but I really enjoy getting things done and having things in some sort of manageable order so as to not loose total control after all the hard work that goes in to keeping on top of everything.

We posted just about at the same time, yeah I have been sick for way too long, more time off would be nice as feel burnt out. Luved all your pics and how nice are those flowering Heliconia Rostratas you have growing beautifully. What do you feed them?

Hi everyone, bloody hot here again today … when will it end. Even though I was up early this morning watering the gardens, by late this afternoon quite a few plants, particularly the crotons (which are tough as) were looking very wilted.

Bree, nice plants in your pics.

Sue, good to hear from you. If you do manage to cross neo Fiesta with neo Jewellery Shop, please put me down for one LOL. Love your heliconia rostratas.

Trish, lucky you getting some rain … if you have any excess, just send it off to Brissie, please. Your neo Hula Girl looks quite different to mine and much larger also, I will post a pic. Love your Alan Freeman hybrid 2799522, very nice neo. Hope you find it has a pretty name, I tried to look it up from Jen’s link but wasn’t able to find it.

Hi all
sorry to have been absent for so many days. finally over that darn flu. up to Monday of this week I still have the croaky voice and very sore throat and slight cough. I think the key was to sleep without the air con on for a few nights and get over it. also found that I needed to rest a bit so Trish you probably need a few nanna naps during the day and plenty of rest.
We are late starting to set up for our sale. we only have 3 tables ready at the moment. a lot of the full grown plants we would have put our are looking stressed and dry even though we are trying to keep the water up to them. our tanks ran dry again yesterday so last night we dragged the hose up the front stairs and onto the carport roof and poked the nozzle down into the downpipe so it went into the tank. we ran it from tea time when we came upstairs until we were going to bed. we got about 2 and a bit rims in the tank. Then tonight we had a pretty good shower of rain. I think Johnny said 12ml but we got another rim of water in the tank. that sould keep us going for a few days. we now have a sprnkler misting system set up to keep the broms happy. it's the best place to be on a hot day too. we have to walk through the water to switch the taps to stop one section and turn on another. each tap now has a 4 way brass splitter attached ... 1 with a hose and 3 for sprinkler hoses. so its just a flick of a swich and change to another set of pipe. there's only another couple of sections to do and they'll all be covered. I think Johnny said we've used 500 metres of pipe so far. after 2 weeks of using the misting system we are just starting to see which ones are missing out on water and we just have to move them elsewhere. we have a birdbath down the back which the birds rarely use so we have filled it with water and stand the stressed out plants in it for a few days. boy they drink that water up too.

I just checked and I haven't downloaded my pics yet to show the golden canes with the feature pot in the middle. I'll do it tomorrow night I promise. I discovered the program to write the name of the plant on my pics so have been doing that at night instead of getting on the internet. I sat here last night till 2am putting names on photos. can't wait to print some out and laminate them to use at the sales. Shirley you don't have to wait for a sale to come over you know. anytime you want to come just ring me and we can work out a time that suits. because we are late getting into the setting up this week and we have medical appointments as well Johnny is really stressing that we won't be ready in time. today it was so hot in middle of the day we went to visit Phyllis Hobbs just to get out of the heat. He can't just sit upstairs knowing he has things to do downstairs. we had no breeze at all getting into the patio area where we pot up.

Jen and I had a lovely day off on Thursday and after a very early start for me, awake at 5am and downstairs watering by 6am, then off with Jen at 8am to visit Del a friend recovering from hip replacement. we did a bit of dead leafing for her and removed a few pups for her to put on ebay then we were off to Olive's (Olive Branch) to see her new stuff out of quarantine. we got some very nice new plants. I had a lady over on Wedneday who spent $100 so I used that to buy some fairly new releases from Olive. It was pretty hot walking through the shadehouses all day and I couldn't even stay awake to go to the brom meeting in town. I think I was sound asleep by 8pm or shortly after.

Hi everyone!!!
Sue- i got fruitcake from ebay so really who knows what it might be it looks good. Im glad you told me about keeping varigated Blanchie in shade as i would have gave it more light and bleached it out.
Trish- no hurry on the broms.
What sort of bark does everyone use on there Broms? do you buy it in big bags? do you add things to it?
My new Broms are 1. Whiteout and 2. Piper (does anyone know this one?)

Thanks to Jen, just found picture of Alan Freeman hybrid 279952 I posted yesterday (not yet named), I luv it and am pleased to now know what the pups are going to turn out like. I popped the pups mother into retirement yesterday as the large pups had sucked the life nearly out of her but hopefully she may produce some more now that she is free and in her own pot.

Hi Shirley I don't blame you being over the dreaded heat and no rain, cross my fingers and toes hopefully you get some soon and everyone else in the Brissie area for that matter.

Shirley pleased to hear you like Alan Freeman hybrid 279952, check out the pic found on the link Jen provided (thanks once again Jen). The pups I took pictures of yesterday have long slender leaves that are quite thick and tough looking.

Shirley thanks for posting Pic 1 of your Neo 'Hula Girl', yeah it has different colouring to mine, your looks like it has smokey apricot tones where mine has more pinkish tones? I really like your one too and you can't mistaken it for anything else other than Hula Girl. How. pretty is that Neo 'High Hopes' in your Pic 2 - luv it. Yeah your Pic 3 looks like Neo 'Jasper Pink' but don't own one for you to compare.

Hi Wendy, pleased to hear you are over that darn flu - finally. Yeah I agree nanna naps are the key to recovering and have managed to sneak some in this weekend so I feel a little re-charged, wish I could do that during the week, I suppose I can just go to bed a little earlier than usual and that may help?

Thanks Wendy whenever you get the chance to post a pic of your golden can with the feature pot in the middle creation that would be great. I look forward to the inspiration.

Hi Bree nice new brom pics! When you say what bark do we use on our broms do you mean as a growing medium or just to put in your garden bed? I don't use bark in my garden beds as I prefer gravel. I buy my brom growing medium from Bunnings which is Searles Cymbidium and Bromeliad Mix that comes in 12Ltr bags for about $6.30. I also add Charcole and Perlite to this mix and all my broms luv it.

Hi all, still hot and dry here.. I potted up some seedlings yesterday and did not much else over the weekend. I see that i have quite a few pups ready to take off and am waiting for the weather to cool down and to put up some more shade area. The seedlings are going mad, growing profusely and are stealing my space for any new plants. I am starting to cull theese so that I may be able to handle what I have..
Sue my Pitcairnia spicata was labelled when i bought it in May last year. I have just trusted the label. I ought to check with fcbs. It looks similar to yours.
Well it is a cloudy day and there is talk of rain this week, but talk is the cheapest commodity of all. When mother nature sends the rain then it will happen, until then I will just have to keep watering.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 snake cactus in flower

Hi everyone – Well the good news is that the extreme heat has gone for now but the bad news is that it's heading north, so all of you northern growers make sure you have all of your protection in place before it gets to you.

I had plants in the garden which survived serious damage simply because they had an “off-cut” of shade cloth draped over (but not touching them). Other plants were protected by a bit of broken Date Palm frond just stuck in the ground nearby to provide some temporary shade. Other plants were moved and re-located to any area of shade I could find, even beneath benches.

There were of course some plants that were overlooked, but by and large I had all bases covered to the best of my ability. I found these measure plus the damping down of surrounding areas in the early morning and late afternoon combined with the use of Seasol as a proactive and reactive treatment certainly minimised a lot of the potential damage, however the one thing I couldn't adequately guard against was the hot air created by a hot westerly wind in the middle of the day.

I couldn't water or spray the plants which would have cooled them down initially but as the water dried it would have scalded them and probably created even more damage. If I had the whole area covered by sprays or misters and could have left them on all through the day the problem would have been solved; but with a large backyard collection and the resources available to me, this just wasn't an option.

Three times now since 2006 I've been though these nasty heatwave days and the only constructive advice I can give is to watch the weather reports and prepare in advance. Nowadays the weather reports are pretty accurate (not always) but in extreme cases like we have just experienced they have been “spot on”.

Shirley – You've posted nice pic's as usual; I like the bright red “fingernails” on Neo 'Red Snapper' they're quite eye catching and as for the Bill. Hallelujah', well that's always a winner. The pic of Neo 'Jasper Pink' in your second lot of pic's doesn't look like the plant I have by that name, mine has a type of marbled effect in the centre; I'll try and get a pic and post it for comparison, in the mean time go to http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=5081#5081 and check out the pic there.

Breeindy – No Bree, I've never heard of Neo 'Fruitcake' and it's not registered so it's probably a pet name someone has given to it based on its appearance once it has matured, so please post another pic when it's grown up. There is a Neo 'Fruit Salad' which is registered as a hybrid of Neo Gespacho but it looks nothing like your plant at this stage. As for your “Blanchie”, I hope you can maintain the variegation; I had a couple o seedlings showed some variegation but as they grew older it jut grew out of them. As for the sort of bark I use in my potting mix, I just buy the Brunnings (not Bunnings) Orchid mix (About $8 for 25L bag) which is mostly all aged pine bark. I have had good result with this and I am currently trialling a 50/50 mix of this with coir mulch but it's too early to tell how it will go yet.

Sue – It sounds like you and I are in the same situation with no air conditioning; the only difference is that you have a pool. When we first came to live here the kids wanted me to put in a pool but being just two streets back from the sea I couldn't see the purpose of it; besides the neighbours had two enormous Norfolk Island Pines that very often dropped needles and cones and I know who would have had to clean it out all the time so that's why it never eventuated.

Like you say, your Neo 'Fiesta' F2's could prove to be a good parents even though they are “wishy washy” in colour themselves. If they were used as the seed parent and crossed with a nice coloured pollen parent they may produce some nice coloured seedling of good shape. Remember what Jack says he has found, “the seed parent influences shape and size and the pollen parent influences the colour", so a cross with Neo 'Jewellery Shop' mightn't be a bad idea.

You're doing a good job with that 'Galactic Warrior', the colour is great; so whatever you do, don't move it to a different location. I like your Heliconias but the “Blanchie” in the background of the third pic gets my vote for colour; how about a pic of it on its own?

Trish – It's good to hear you're getting some rain up your way, maybe it'll clean the air of some of these flu bugs. I sounds like you are “on the mend” now, although sometimes these “cold type” bugs seems to take forever to get over and they just leave us feeling so drained. This reminds me of a little story I'd like to share with you. Before I retired, I worked as an industrial ambulance officer at the steel works for thirty years and I remember one night shift a young Turkish bloke came into the ambulance station looking pretty crook. Before I could treat him I had to first find out the problem and as he didn't have very good English he was having trouble explaining what was wrong. I said to him, “just tell me what you feel”. He answered, “I feel like my missus stick the vacuum up my bum and such out all my energy”, and I'm yet to hear of a better description of how we feel when we have the flu or a cold.

It's interesting you mention Vr. 'Highway Beauty' and Vr. 'Ro Ro'. There was for some time a lot of confusion about the names of these plants which were very much alike and from the same parents Vr. Bitumenosa x Vr. Saundersii (The name Vr. Bitumenosa has since been changed to Vr. Platynema). Add also into the equation another called Vr 'Shiraz' and another non-variegated plant from the same cross called Vr. 'Highway' which complicates things even further. To read the whole story and see the pic's, go to: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=VRIESEA&id=8684#8684

Regarding the number of your Freeman hybrid, it doesn't seem to have been registered as yet. The closest I can find on the Bromagic list is one before it, 279-95-21 and called Neo. 'Well Wisher' but as yet it doesn't even appear on the BCR so maybe these names are pending registration.

Wendy – It's good to hear you're getting over the “Brisbane Bug” as well; don't go over working yourself and Johnny at your sale or you may find it returns and knocks you over again. Seems like you could do with a lot more rain to fill the tanks but like down here, it just won't fall out of the clouds.

That's it for today but unfortunately no pic's, as I took a heap this morning after a bit of overnight drizzle and when I went to load them onto the computer my camera's battery is flat, so maybe tomorrow.

Love that one you posted Trish. Thanks for telling me what bark you use and Nev thanks also. Ive been using orchid bark but its getting hard to come by and the postage is getting expensive. Might have to buy something different for my broms.
Dont mind the weeds. hehe! All my Ach. Orland. are sending out pups at the same time.

Hi all, had a drop of moisture falling from the sky. It lasted about 10 minutes I ought have taken myself out back with a cake of soap, probibly would have had to come inside to finish my shower though. I am potting on some of my seedlings, some singly and some in clumps to see which does best.
Bree, I like your pups, are they registered yet,he he. I use Brunnings pine bark and Searles potting mix 50/50. I try to weather the mix for a couple of weeks. When I mix it I also use a bit of Dolomite to reduce the acidity of the pine bark. I used to use Brunnings Orchid mix but Bunnings have decided not to supply it any more here, this is only in Mackay that i know about. Bromalong "Mike" wrote about the acidity of fresh pine bark in about July ,August.
Fruitcake what a name for a plant, I've been called that.
Pic 1 Noid similar to Bob and grace. I potted up seedlings today
Pic 2 Bil Pink Patches seedlings, seed planted 05-10 potted up 29-11-12
Pic 3 Ae Fred on left and Ae Bert
Pic 4 N minis on a palm tree
Pic 5 Neoglaziova starting to flower

It's blowing a gale here with more rain in site for the week, found some of my brom pots blown over but no damage thank goodness.

Hi Shirley what a bugger you suspect you are getting the flue again, hope you feel better real soon. Thanks yes I am trying to rest by going to bed earlier than usual but still trying to exercise as I always find that it makes me feel better and helps me recover sooner.

Shirley luved the pic you posted of Neo 'Justins Song', I have this one too and really admire it for it's size and color. Hopefully it will give me pups soon so I can pop some in my other garden beds.

Hi Nev glad to hear the extreme weather has left you. I can handle the wind but hope the tropical lows dont turn into cyclones. It is very overcast during the day so other than wind my broms outside are couping well for now.

Nev I howled with laughter when I read your story about the Turkish bloke - too funny Nev, that's exactly how I have been feeling these past couple of weeks LOL.

Thanks Nev I look forward to reading the link you provided in relation to Vr. Highway Beauty and Vr. Ro Ro.

Thanks Nev yeah when I purchased the Alan Freeman hybrid the seller said it was yet to be registered and to look it up.and keep checking, at least for now it has a number and I know what it looks like now thanks to Jen so I am very pleased with the current info I have on it for now.

Hi Bree hope you find something more affordable to use as a growing medium for your broms, yeah postage would be a killer getting it that way. Great to see all your beautiful Ae Pups, who cares about the weeds that's just part parcel with having gardens to maintain and if you dont like using sprays for weeds then it is an on going task that we just have to get used to. I do use Round Up on some of my garden beds that give me a hard time but I am very careful to not drown the area in it, I only spray a little on one of the leaves and ensure I don't spray when it's windy or looking like it is going to rain. It works well for me. I also make sure I move my brom pots in case I spray them by accident.as sometimes I get trigger happy LOL. When I move the brom pots I also move the frogs that live in them so no harm comes to my little green friends, and I have never found dead frogs anywhere so I know that I am not going crazy with the stuff - less is more as far as I am concerned when using sprays.

Hello everyone, nice to see lots of posts. Same old weather pattern here except for the quickest shower late this afternoon … like I mean, maybe 30 seconds.

Ian, what is your trick to making your seedlings grow like mad. Maybe I look at mine too often and don’t notice they are growing. Bunnings here no longer stock Brunnings orchid mix but Big W here has it.

Nev, it is good news that the heat wave has left you but I’m not too pleased about it heading up here … as if it’s not hot enough here already. I noticed a few broms with rather severe burns today ... the really tough, sun hardened ones that I thought wouldn’t need extra protection, like neos Macho and Tiger … very disappointing.

I don’t think my neo is Jasper Pink, it isn’t marbled and it’s actually more orange than pink … oh well, another NOID.

Trish, your neo Purple Sand is very nice, I have that one and have just recently bought neo Red Sand.

I might give the pics a miss and head off to bed a little earlier tonight.

Hi everyone – Has anyone heard from Colleen? She hurt her back toward the end of last year and then a couple of posts but since then nothing? I hope she hasn't overdone it and hurt her back again.

Bree – If you're having trouble getting bark in your area why not ask some other growers where they get theirs or what other materials you could use. I'm a bit reluctant to suggest anything as my climate is very different to yours and you would be better advised to ask someone in your own area. I have heard of Queensland growers in the tropics using Quincan Gravel or Scoria and I had one brom friend up on the hinterland inland from Cairns who grew beautiful brom's in plain river gravel, so you're not just limited to bark.

It's good to see your Ae. Orlandianas putting up pups, you must be doing everything right so don't alter anything that you're doing or change their positions.

Ian – It's a pity you couldn't have got a bit more rain; it's so tormenting when it just rains for a short time like that which seems to promise better things and then nothing!

I like your use of “Tec Screws” to fasten plants to trees, I haven't used that method before although I've used them for many other things and find they are “better than sliced bread”!

I've never used Dolomite in my brom mix so I have no knowledge of what quantities are required so can you help us all out by expanding on what quantities to use e.g. how much Dolomite would you mix in a builders barrow full of bark mix?

I had the same problems trying to get the Brunnings Orchid Mix at Bunnings down here. All of a sudden where there was once pallets of it there was nothing. When I enquired I was told that Brunnings had stopped supplying all of the larger outlets such as Bunnings etc. It seems it was because of some deal that was done between the new Masters Super Store and Brunnings which sounds very much like Masters want to have a monopoly on some of the Brunnings products. This seems ridiculous to me as the alleged new Masters store down here won't be built for another two years, so maybe someone's telling “porkies”. I have managed to track it down at one of the local nurseries,/pet food supply stores and when I asked them about continuing supply they said it was one of their best sellers and they would be continuing to sell it, so I guess the question is, do you have or are you getting a Masters store in your area? Can any of you other growers who do have a Masters store in your area tell me if they sell this product?

Just out of interest, I just copied this off the web:

WOOLWORTHS' hardware chain Masters has attempted to trump the Bunnings sausage sizzle by pairing up with McDonald's to sell Big Mac's and cheeseburgers at its stores.
The eight Masters stores to be built in NSW will include a full McDonalds outlet including a McCafe and play area, the company announced today.

The first Masters stores -- intended to be a more upmarket experience than Bunnings' workmanlike warehouses -- will open at Gregory Hills, near Narellan, and Rutherford, nearMaitland, next year.

The next six will come in Ballina, Hoxton Park, St Marys, Warwick Farm, West Gosford andWagga Wagga if rezoning and council approval is successful.

Masters plans to ultimately roll out as many as 45 stores across NSW.
The Masters stores, tipped to cost up to $23 million each to build, will be 40 per cent bigger than the average Bunnings and sell hardware as well as kitchens, lighting, curtains, flooring, gardening equipment and bathroom fixtures.

As well as the above stores in N.S.W., there will also be ten Queensland stores at Rockhampton, Cairns, Morayfield, Toowoomba Sth, North Lakes, Tingalpa, Springfield Central, Upper Coomera, Nerang and Rutherford.

Trish – It looks like you're getting the rain you wanted but with an unwanted accompanying wind as well which really isn't too bad. It will blow the odd plant over and break a few leaves, but it's when the wind is hot that it really does the damage and fortunately you've been spared this.

I don't use Roundup any more mainly due to the fact that the company that makes it (Monsanto) promotes genetically modified crops which I personally don't agree with and this is my way of protesting (Call me a “tree hugger” if you like).

I have since found a good reliable weed killer called “Richgro Beat-A-Weed” that is a natural product which generally won't harm children, pets or the environment as the active ingredients in it are Acetic acid and sodium chloride both harmless to animals and humans. http://www.richgro.com.au/faqs/beat_a_weed_faq.html

Shirley – What you say about getting Brunnings Orchid Potting Mix at Big W ties in with what I've been told as Masters and Big W are both Woolworths owned.

I really don't think they make the brom's that will withstand the extreme heat we had here the other day without showing some form of burn damage, Even a couple of my Ae Recurvatas which I've always said were “bullet proof” had a bit of burning which is something I never thought I'd ever see. The good thing though is that in most cases, they will survive as they are the most resilient plants I know of.

I'm posting a pic of my Neo 'Jasper Pink' (Pic.1) but it doesn't show the true colours as it has finished flowering and I “bumped up” the fertilizer to encourage more pups and in doing so the extra nitrogen has robbed it of is colour, however you can still see the marbling effect.

I'll finish with some pic's as usual, Pic.1 is Neo 'Jasper Pink' for Shirley, Pic.2 is Nidularium Longiflorum, an old favourite which is easy to grow and flower in those difficult shady areas. Pic's 3, 4 and 5 are random pic's I took around the yard yesterday morning after an overnight drizzle.

Well Ballina is only an hour away from me so i'll let you know when the Masters store gets there.
Yeah i do use Round up around my garden edges but not around my potted broms so if i dont move them all i just pull out the weeds around them by hand.There sitting in a garden full of strawberry plants so i cant really spray round up in it anyway.
I was wondering about using pine bark in a brom mix. (I know id never use it for orchids.)
I bought the brom and cymbidium mix, seems like it has alot of charcol in it. Thanks everyone for letting me know what you use.
1. Jewellery Shop 2. Small World 3. Break of Day

It's been raining constant since I got home, it rained at work but not all day. The weather man is saying we should get about 400ml over the next couple of days and weather should start to clear a little by Friday. Wish we had watertanks to store some of this beautiful rain.

Hi Shirley have you had any more rain since your 30 second shower? Wish we could send some down to everyone who needs so much.

Shirley I have not seen Neo 'Red Sand', can you please post a pic when you get a chance as I am really interested to see what it looks like.

Hi Nev we don't have a Masters store in Townsville, but we do have 2 x Bunnings stores and ADCO Consructions are currently building a 3rd one as foundation works have commenced. So no issues for Joe getting the Orchid Mix he usually buys that comes in large pink bags.

Yeah Nev pleased we have been spared heat with the wind. It's windy and overcast so experiencing no issues. I will just have to keep an eye on the predicted weather for Friday in case the sun comes out as I have some of the temp shades off some of my broms because of the strong gusty wind we are getting.

Thanks Nev I will have to give that weed killer you recommended a go as it sounds like a good natural product.

Nev I just found pups on my Nidularium Longiflorum and I am really pleased as I only have the one plant. I have mine growing under the Avocado tree in dappled shade. Great random pics you posted also, they all look so healthy and happy.

Hi Bree, we know Ballina - what a beautiful place, it's good that it is only an hour away from you for when the Master store arrives.

Yeah Bree I think that Brom & Cymbidium mix has Charcol in it but I add ever more to the mix as well as perlite as I find my bromeliads do even better. The one's I originally had just in the Brom & Cymbidium mix I tipped out and made new mix for them because I was not 100% happy with their growth. I normally pour the Brom & Cymbidium mix into a stock standard everyday bucket 3/4 full and then top the rest up with equal parts of Charcol and Perlite. I have never added pine bark to my brom mix as it already has a lot of bark in it already.

Hi all, Just another hot day at work and a light shower when I got home. I potted on some more seedlings possibly a bit early but they will grow. I needed to thin out some of my seed trays and maybe cull some now. Before xmas I threw 4 trays of seedlings into the front garden, some are still growing with almost no attention. Hardy little buggers.

Shirley, I show my best results and keep the others hidden. Some plants grow quicker than others. Like my grandson each seedling needs feeding often, small doses and often. I also like to give them a lot of fresh air. I lift the lid every few days and assess the moisture content, if I think they need more I water them with whatever I have mixed up, Seasol or Condys chrystals or just plain water. If they look too wet I leave them to dry out for a day and then reassess again. I have no drainage holes in my seed containers. For the first month I water my seedlings with Miltons only.

Nev I am using 1 gram of dolomite per 1 litre of mix, if I remember Mike suggested 1kg per 1cubic metre of mix There is talk in this town that we are getting a Masters store here soon. I have seen the new building being erected but there are no signs to tell who it belongs to as yet. Soon they will get to a stage where they can paint it and then more will be revealed.One can live in hope. This new store will be a more suitable location than Big W.
Pic 1 N bills gift
Pic 2 N Bantu
Pic 3 N Barbarian
Pic 4

Hello everyone, we have had some patchy showers here today, here’s hoping we get a lot more. It’s still very hot and muggy.

Nev, our nearest Masters (Morayfield) doesn’t stock Brunnings Orchid mix so Big W is probably the best place to try if anyone is looking for it. I love the little neo in the front left of your fourth pic Nev, is that neo Small World … and is that neo Cliff Siverd in the middle of the fifth pic.

Bree, the broms in your pics look lovely too.

I have had a few broms burn the last couple of days and a couple that could be a little overdone as well.

My pics are 1 & 2 neo Macho mum, with a couple of burns and neo Macho pup, who didn’t fare quite so well. Pic 3 is neo Cockabel and 4 is neo Fools Gold, both of which are a bit suss. Quite a few others have burn spots but overall, I guess, not a lot of damage.

Wendy, I guess you are madly trying to organise your broms for the sales tables. We will drop over on Friday morning but won’t hold you up too long if you are busy. Looking forward to seeing you then and getting a few more of your lovelies. Neos Governors Plea, Mister Odean and Luna are three I would like if you have any or all of them.

I also have broms in the post from Jean and from Nev … and Jen has one for me too. Woohoo, this is going to be an incredibly good brom week, I am really looking forward to my new arrivals.

Hi to Jen, Sue, Ian, Jean, Trish and Colleen if you’re looking in .. and Kristi and Karen too, we haven’t heard from you for quite a while now, hope everyone’s OK.

Hi Trish and Ian, I should have refreshed my screen before I posted and I would have seen your earlier posts.

Trish, hope you do not get too much rain and yes, we have had a few showers but need lots more. The neo Red Sand I bought is just a pup and it hasn't arrived yet, probably not much to look at yet ... I'll let you know.

Wendy, I have thought of so many others I would like ... guess I'll just wait and see what you have available.

Love your pics Shirley, i love Macho mine isnt looking that good yet. Yeah ive noticed some of my broms have burns also, that hot weather.
'I only know Red sands (even though i dont have one) i didnt know there were other coloured sands. hehe!
I just noticed Masters store has Cymbidium and Brom mix for 4.00 a 6L bag.

Hello everyone. I seem to have somehow succumbed to some sort of magic spell and bought even more broms.
Do you brom addicts send out mind fairies to lull us all into collecting ?...lol
I was so lucky on eBay in buying 3 new vrieseas. I thogught they would all be bid on quickly, but that fairy was watching out for me an dI had no other bids to compete with . I cant wait to see the new ones and also what is in the post from Nev & Shirley.

I will get pics as soon as everything arrives.
The new vrieseas from Ebay are...vr, Chieftan x Angela, vr. White Bands x fenestralis and vr. Franklin Forest.
I paid a little more than I normally would, but they do look very nice.
I also have from Quicksales... vr, Red Brat and a variegated noid vriesea and nidularium B J Fire, which I cannot find in any brom index.

You will be able to tell me if they are very good , but I liked the look of them all.
Jean.

Hi everyone – It's much cooler here today and a good day for me to get out and do a bit of long overdue potting. We had a bit of light rain overnight and that will all help in the recovery of any plants that were damaged by the excessive heat.

Breeindy – Pine bark is used readily in both orchid and brom mixes down here where I live and has been for years. It first became popular as a medium for orchids when the American Fir Bark became too hard to get in Aust (as well as being very expensive). It was trialled and found to be a suitable growing medium as long as it was aged and not fresh. The down side was that White Ants (Termites) like it also so it wasn't suitable for areas where these are present. It's also used in a lot of commercial mixes.

You say, “I know id never use it for orchids”; do you mind telling us all why, have you found a problem with it that we should all know about?

I like the choice of Neo in your pic's; in my opinion they are three of the best smaller types of Neo's available and firm favourites of mine also. There is another of similar size and nice shape called Neo 'One and Only' which is worth collecting also. With the exception of Neo Jewellery Shop the remaining three are Grace Goode hybrids all bred from the same seed parent, Neo 'Maid of Honour'.

Trish – Can you tell us a bit more about the orchid mix that Joe gets from Bunnings? What exactly is it called and what size are the “large pink bags” that you speak of? I'd like to have a look and see if they sell it here in our local Bunnings.

Getting back to that weed killer I spoke of yesterday, I also found that it works more quickly (overnight) than Roundup as well. However, like Roundup, it doesn't kill any seeds that may be in the soil so you will get re-growth.

I'm sure you won't be disappointed with your Nid. Longiflorum as I find it a very good grower which produces bright red bracts which remain in colour for many months. As well as flowering reliably every year, it will also grow in those awkward shady areas where other plants won't do well as well as growing happily alongside Neo's in good light.

Ian – I love your comparison of the tiny seedlings and your new grandson both requiring “small doses and often”. This follows the age old nurseryman's rule of “little and often” as I was once told e.g. If the instructions said to mix foliar fertilizer at the rate of 1 teaspoon to a bucket of water and apply monthly, better results would be obtained by mixing ¼ teaspoon to a bucket of water and applying weekly, in other words “weakly applied weekly”. This is why the big commercial nurseries feed with every watering through an automatic watering system.

Thanks for the info about Dolomite, I must give it a try in a few plants and see if it makes any difference. I'm quite happy with the way my plants are growing at present but there's always room for improvement and its an on-going trial of different methods and products.

Just a suggestion, try growing your Neo.'Barbarian' in higher light for increased colour, you'll be surprised at the difference.

Shirley – I thought that the Neo in that pic also looked like Neo 'Cliff Siverd'. It's a plant I got as Neo 'Ashanti' but it looks nothing like the pic of this plant which Jen posted a while back and which I'll post for comparison. If anyone has a spare pup of Neo.'Ashanti' please D-Mail me as I'd like to buy/swap one.

The little Neo you speak of “in the front left of your fourth pic” isn't Neo. Small World but one of it's siblings called Neo 'One and Only' (See my answer to Breeindy above).

You have good colour in you Neo Macho's it's a pity about the sun damage. I don't have Neo 'Red Sand' but I've seen it and I'm sure you'll love it when it matures as the colours are magnificent. It's a Shane Zaghini hybrid from Neo.'Barbarian' x Neo. 'Gold Fever'.

Jean - You were telling us "Porkies" when you said you weren't getting any more brom's and now it seems you're "hooked" just like the rest of us. Vr. 'Franklin Forest' is a Jack Koning hybrid from Vr. Fenestralis x Vr Fosteriana, as for the others well they seem to be hybrids from some well known "goodies". The Chieftan x Angela sound particularly interesting. I don't know of the other Vriesea or the Nidularium and so look forward to seeing the pic's.

That's it for today; Pic 1 is the pic Jen posted of her Neo. 'Ashanti', Pic.2 is my Neo 'Barbarian' grown in bright light but looking a bit rough and “worse for wear”after the heat, Pic.3 is Cruenta 'Broad Leaf' and Pic's 4 and 5 are random garden and shade house pic's.

Moi...hooked on broms ????
It must be the "bad"influences on here...lol
I know I did say no more, but I just cannot resist the darn things especially the vrieseas.
Thank you to Nev for his most generous parcel too.

I had to downsize some of my plants , like the irises, as it was getting to be too much work and the weeds were becoming an increasing problem. With the brugs and broms I have no worries as they are in pots.
I still have a lot of epis and zygos ( again , all in pots )
There are plenty of other plants I have around the place, but I am keeping everything possible in pots for ease of care.
I am not getting any younger and have had to realise, that I cannot care for all the hundreds of plants I used to.
I have a few nice azaleas and gardenias along with a camellia or two that all live on the veranda and do really well.

Broke out the umbrella today for the first time in a long time as we had non stop rain today, about 100ml so far with a lot more to come. The day feels light night because of the full cloud cover, mist and constant rain.

Hi Shirley pleased to hear and see by the pics that you only got a little sunburn damage to your broms, at least you still have them and can get more pups from them down the track.

Shirley that would be great if you could post a pic of Neo 'Red Sand' when it matures.

Hi Bee thats great that you found Masters stocks Cymbidium & Brom mix in 6L bag for $4, the stuff I use from Bunnings I am really happy with and it's $6.20 for 12L bag.

Hi Jean sounds like you really like your vrieseas like me, below are pics of Vr. Maroochy Scarlet Rose that Joe got for me from EBay the other day and surprised me with it when it arrived in the mail today. I unwrapped it and could not believe the size of the plant 60cm wide and 48cm high - WOW. Aparently this is another vriesea from the successful cross that produced the beautiful Maroochy Inferno, Maroochy Flame, and Maroochy Scarlet Lady and the plant is supposed to be more rose pink than Scarlet Lady. The seller said that it's color will get more intense in Autumn.

Hi Nev I checked with Joe but he can't remember the name of the Orchid Mix (in the pink bag) that he gets from Bunnings and we have no bags left in the shed to check, but the next time we are in Bunnings I will check as we need to get some more and I will let you know. I have used this on my broms before with the added charcol and perlite and my broms seemed to like it, I just found the mix not course enough for me so only use it every now and again when I have run out of my usual mix for some of my more common broms.

Thanks Nev for providing additional info on weed spray and re-growth, good to know for when I come to purchasing and using.

Hi everyone, I didn’t get much of a chance to brom around today, housework, shopping, physio … all the fun stuff.

Nev, I got your parcel today, such beautiful broms, thank you so much.

There are a couple of orchid mixes in large pink bags which our local Bunnings sell, one is Searles and the other is Miracle Grow. I usually buy one or the other, they are both 25kg bags from memory, the Searles is around $10.00 a bag and Miracle Grow about $8.00. After reading that Jen uses the normal Brunnings potting mix at $3.28 a bag to pot her broms, I might use a mix of both and save a bit of money … then I can buy more broms.

Nev, I don’t have neo Ashanti, I wish I did, it’s one that’s been on my wish list for a while too.

Jean, I like your excuse ‘you succumbed to some sort of magic spell’, I might try that one the next time Michael comments on the number of broms that I ‘must have’. I might even try “the mind fairies made me do it”, though he’ll probably have me committed.

Maybe it’s time to just admit that, like the rest of us Jean, you’ve been bitten by the brom bug … and there is no known cure. The symptoms can be treated with regular doses of new bromeliads to feed the bug, and that’s the only effective therapy there is. Beware the eBay ‘bidderbug’ too, I’ve been bitten by one of those as well.

Anyway Jean, your new vrieseas sound very nice, looking forward to the pics.

Hi everyone – It's good to hear at least some of you up north are getting some rain, hopefully it will spread to others who need it. I spent most of yesterday doing what I like best, dividing and re-potting; but now comes the hard part, finding somewhere to put them all.

Has anyone heard from Sue or Jen? It seems like the “Brom Monster “ may have swallowed them up along with Colleen. I hope they haven't succumbed to the dreaded “Summer Flu” as well.

Jean – Glad you liked the “bits and pieces”. It seems you're like me and found that plants in the garden are much harder to maintain than those in pots. I had to move from garden beds to pots a few years back now and find it much easier without the digging and constant bending; besides it's much easier if you want to relocate a plant to another spot.

You say you've had to downsize your Irises; these are plants I have always admired but never grown as I've never seen them in our local area and thought that maybe they don't like the salt air. I did at one time think of getting a few via mail order to try growing, but brom's came into the picture and it never eventuated. Do you think they would grow in pots? If so maybe I could still give them a try and swap a few for brom's. (Sorry about the momentary diversion away from brom's)

Trish – Good to see you're getting some good rain, it's a pity you can't send a bit around to our other northern growers who need it. What you need now are a couple of decent sized tanks to capture the excess and then you'll be set for the dry spells.

Thanks for the offer of passing on the potting mix info when next you and Joe go to buy some more of the mix in the pink bags he uses for his orchids. I'm always on the lookout for new products to try as no matter how well we grow our plants, there's always room for improvement and always newer and better things coming onto the market.

Down here where I live, about sixty five years ago Tan Bark was the basis of all orchid potting mixes and when the tanners started using chemicals instead of Wattle Bark for this process it was no longer a cheap commonly available by-product for orchid growing.

The way all of the orchid growers were complaining, you would have thought the world was coming to an end, but by trying other things it was soon discovered that pine bark was almost as good (although it didn't last as long). Between Pine Bark and Hardwood Sawdust (both by-products of the timber industry) the loss of Tan Bark was solved and new different recipes for potting mixed appeared almost every day. It seems there's a lot of comparison with the old saying of, “when one door shuts, another door opens” and that's why we have to keep trying new things.

I'll bet you were thrilled to bits with the lovely Vriesea that Joe got you, what a great surprise and beautifully coloured as well. I hadn't heard of that name before, but that's not unusual as I'm more into Neo's as I don't have enough space for larger plants like foliage Vrieseas. When I looked for the name on the BCR I found there are 16 registered Vrieseas with a name starting with “Maroochy” (although they aren't all from the same grex) they were all bred by a man called Alan Pythian who I believe is a Queenslander and to see his other creations, go to: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?fields=Name&id=10952&search=maroochy.

Shirley – Pleased you liked your pups and I'm sure you'll enjoy them even more when they mature.

That's a nice group of Vrieseas you have posted as well. I especially like the Vr. Nova and although I don't have it, it's a long time favourite of mine. The attractive leaf tips of the Vr Platynema variegata never cease to amaze, and even without the name of the plant in Pic.4 being given, the connection with Platynema is obvious by the coloured leaf tips. Vr. 'Kiwi Cream' is as the name implies a N.Z. Hybrid made by Andrew Malloy and was first available in Australia a few years back as a tissue cultured plant along with Vr. 'Kiwi Dusk' and Vr. 'Kiwi Sunset'. There are currently 23 different plants registered on the BCR from the “Kiwi” grex and they are all worth growing. If you want to have a look, they are all in alphabetical order and starting with Vr ‘Kiwi Blackcurrant Sundae’ start at: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=VRIESEA&id=11276#11276

Hello everyone. I think I will finally admit I am a brom nut now as well as a brug nut.
Nev, as you say, its so much easier having plants in pots. I can move the little darlings around whenever they need it. A lot easier too, in the fertilising & watering.
Talking of fertiliser, what is the best to use on broms , when & how much ?
I have been very lax in that department because I was concentrating on other plants.
I have used Seasol in the watering can about once a month or a bit of Miraclegro.
I did put a little thingy of osmocote in each brom about 3 weeks ago. ( after reading all the great advice here )

I should write info down so I have it at hand. I will this time..

Luckily I dont seem to get anything eating the broms but small spiders like to live in them.
I do get small frogs too. Cute little brown ones, not the beautiful green tropical ones.
I have to laugh as I see a little pair of froggy eyes looking at me when I carry a brom down to the shadehouse.

I will get pics as soon as I get all the new plants potted. Have to run over to Hamilton tomorrow to get more orchid mix.
I can only get the Yates orchid mix in Hamilton ( $12 ) but when we go to Mt Gambier, I try and get a couple of bags there.
I used to always get what I could from Bunnings . They only had one ($12) but I could not find it last time. I think it must be the one you were all talking about which may be now at Masters.
There is a large Masters store in Mt Gambier. The mix I was getting was just bark & woodchips.
I once used to get bags of composted pine bark from Permewans but that stopped about 8 years ago. It was excellent for the orchids. I didnt have broms then , but they would have liked it.

I did like the gardening part of the new Masters store. It was HUGE.
Hubby said I shouldnt go in as I may never come out. He was nearly right. I had to wrench myself away.

Hi all, rain , gloriuos rain sterted last night and we had a few good showers. Today we had more rain, heavy rain and gusty winds. I have not checked to see if any plants have been blown over, might just wait until the weather is a bit clearer. Less windy, not much point standing up a plant only to have it blown over again.

Nev what is that plant in Pic 2 of your last post. I like it as it is unusual.

Jean I use low nitrogen fertilisers and mostly I use foliar feeding. I use Condys chrystals mixed in water to a pink tinge or I use Manutec bloom booster fairly regularly. Once in a while I useManutec African Voilet mix just for variety. Too much Nitrogen gives a lot of growth in the leaves at the expense of colour.
Little and often is recommended.
Have a good one
Ian

Hi all, it has been raining off and on here today, everything is looking so much better already. I hope we get a bit more yet.

Nev, I have my new babies all potted up today, after they spent last night sitting in a tub of rain water and raw sugar. They’re looking good, thanks again.

I had a look at those 23 Kiwi vrieseas on the BCR, Nev … WOW, wouldn’t I love some of those (about 20 of them, I have 3), they are just beautiful. I wonder how long it will be before they are readily available here at a price we can afford to pay.

Jean, the only orchid mix I have seen at our Masters store in a large bag is Amgrow, 25kg I think @ $8.00 and also in a big pink bag. I usually grab a couple of bags if we are up that way.

Ian, good to hear you are getting some rain too. Fortunately we haven’t had the wind and we’ve had good soaking rain.

Wendy, if you happen to look in, we’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Hi to everyone else, hope to see everyone back posting again shortly.

Pics … I’ll see what I can find !!

Pic 1 is alc extensa, 2 is neo Blue Thunder, 3 is another of my neo Fiesta, this one has much better colour than the one I posted a few days ago.

Hi everyone – I hope you're all fit and well and for those who are still on the “sick list”, Get Well Soon!

Jean – At last you've finally admitted you are a “Bromophile” and now we can all start to help with your treatment for this complaint. Unfortunately, as you may or may not know this problem is incurable, however there are treatments available for the symptoms to make you more comfortable. Probably the most common and successful treatment that gives some relief is to regularly visit other brom growers, brom nurseries or bromeliad societies and generally mix with others suffering from the same affliction. It also helps enormously if you buy a plant or two along the way or some of the other available commodities required for bromeliad growing. During the times when this disease is really starting to get you down, a quick “pick-me-up” is to open up Dave's Garden “Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts”and have a chat with other people suffering from the same affliction; remember we're all here to help you with your problem.

To help with advice on fertilising, I can email you a couple of a couple of little articles I once wrote for our society's News Letter. They are too long to print here and if you or anyone else would like a copy, just D-Mail me your email address and I'll happily send you copies.

I will just say here though, that you mustn't fall into the trap that others before you have fallen into, and that is when you have good results from using fertiliser according to instructions, don't think that by doubling the strength will get results twice as good; you wont! What you will get are plants suffering from a fertiliser "overdose" which will often set the plants back and sometimes even kill them.

You say you don't get anything eating your brom's, that's because you have spiders and small frogs and they are controlling your insect pests. It's far better to let "Mother Nature" take her course than to try controlling these pests with insecticides which kill the “good bugs” as well as the “bad bugs” plus any other creatures that may eat the poisoned insects.

They say that frogs and lizards in the yard are a sign of a good healthy environment, and if you're fortunate enough to have a resident Blue Tongue Lizard as well, then you have an added bonus as you shouldn't have any trouble with snails at ground level as Blue Tongues love to eat snails; but remember if you poison the nails with snail pellets, you also run the risk of killing anything that feeds on them including the Blue Tongue Lizards.

I sometimes curse the unsightly cobwebs in some of my brom's, but when I stop and think that these small spiders are living off insects that could otherwise harm my brom's, the cobwebs don't seem nearly as bad and I just think of the spiders as a natural insect control that's not poisoning the environment and other creatures living within it.

Ian – It's great to hear that at last you're getting some good rain; now's the time to get out the camera as your brom's always look their best just after some rain.

The plant you enquired about is just a common old Ae. Fasciata just showing the beautiful pale pink bracts before the flowers are visible. As they say “It's an oldie but still a goodie” and I have them all through the back garden as well as a large clump in the fork of my Peppercorn Tree. Did you also know that Ae. Fasciata is still the bigest selling bromeliad worldwide especially in Europe where they grow them by tissue culture in their millions.

Ian that's good information you give about fertilisers and feeding and I'm sure that anyone following that advice will have good results.

Shirley – It's good to hear you're getting good rain as well as Ian, also the fact that your new plants were able to have a soak in fresh rain water is an added bonus.

As well as these beauties we mustn't forget our own “Master Breeder” of beautiful Vrieseas, and that is Jack Koniong of Port Macquarie N.S.W who has bred some beautiful examples, and pictures of his efforts can be found at:http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?fields=Breeder&id=9966&search=koning
I think my all time favourite of Jack's is his Vr. 'Yellow Moon' which you can see at the above site.

I like the colour of your Neo. 'Blue Thunder'; and the colour and combined lovely uniform shape of Neo. Fiesta is great and would be a must in any collection.

Time to go now, so to finish here's a few pic's; firstly Pic.1 is the Guzmania Sanguinea which I was lucky enough to get seed from and grew about 200 nice seedlings which have all now been sold except for one I kept for myself. Pic.2 is of my Neo 'Lambert's Pride' twins, Pic 3 is Vr. Evita which I've posted to show Jean how the leaf colour will change from green when grown in strong light right up under the shade cloth. Pic 4 is just another variegated garden Neo whose name escapes me at the moment and Pic.5 is another of my Neo Concentrica x [Charm x Cracker Jack] seedlings.

Nev, it is so very kind of you to put those links on. I can now indulge in much wishing as I browse through.
You really should be "helping " by telling us all to avoid these sites . It only encourages the "disease"...lol

Thank you for the pic of vr. Evita. It is very bright in my greenhouse so the vrieseas should color nicely . If not, I can move some to the epi house which is even brighter as I used beige s/cloth instead of green for the roof.

I am always careful with any fertiliser and have never fallen for the "more is better" thing .
I may be even too careful with the broms as I dont want to kill them.
Its surprising how hardy some are though.
I put a few of the older shabby looking ones out in the open shadehouse where they get all the weather, but they are still going. I even see a pup on one. So far they have spent 2 winters out there.

Thank you all for the tips and encouragement.
Its nice to know the "epidemic " ( or should I say bromademic ) has claimed so many victims.

hello, just popping in quickly to let you know all is well, just not getting many chances to sit down on the computer. I have looked at (and laughed at a few) of the posts and lovely photos.
I am having trouble uploading photos from my camera, as the cord to upload no longer fits the hole, and now, if I eject the SD card to upload photos from it, the camera isn't detecting it when its re-inserted, so alot of jiggling around, swearing and cursing, is involved! Time for a new camera, but it takes such good shots!
Keep upthe banter and pics. I will try to get some photos up when I can
Sue
Isn't it nice to have some rain?

Hello Nev, I'm still around.
Potted up all my new broms yesterday. I was reading an article on vrieseas, which commented on the fact that they grow well in good soil or potting mix. I thought I would try a blend of potting mix and orchid mix.
I used half and half then added a bag of perlite. It looked very good and drains well.

I took a few pics of the broms so will add them here . My neos are not quite as bright as all those I see on here, but then the light is different down here.
Where I live it is often cloudy even in warm weather. I leave the greenhouse open until winter so there is as much light as I can give them
I am pleased with the way they do color and nearly all flower . They pup well too so I am happy to enjoy them as they are.
This is the first time I have had so many vrieseas, so I am looking forward to seeing them mature . The ones I had like it very much so hopefully all the new ones will too.

Nev, I was amazed to see new small white roots on the seedlings and a couple of the bigger broms.
I have had them sitting in some spaghnum moss dampened with the sugar water.
I will be using that method on any new broms I get.

With the spider webs , I usually just use a twig and twirl off any that gets to unsightly. I will kill any of the big black squishy spiders that can get in the bottom of the pots as they can be nasty.
Not many of these , thank goodness. I like watching the little spiders that jump around in the broms. I am sure the frogs have a good feed of them and anything else that happens along.

Went to my sisters friends wholesale nursery today in Palmers Island, they had alot of broms, mainly common ones, Fireball and minis in big clumps. They had alot of Palms also.
I bought this Brom, anyone know what it is?...i love it. No spines, grey/green with pink dots on smooth flat leaves in a awsome shape. $15.00 for a decent sized plant.
Not a very nice day to be outside but we do need the rain, lunch at the rsl and inside for the rest of the day.hehe! Im halfway through repotting my Broms but to wet now.

Hi everyone, well we’ve certainly had some rain now. It has been a bit blowy today but apparently it’s going to be worse tomorrow. We went to an Australia Day barby this afternoon … a bit wet but still good fun.

Nev, I’m still here … just had a night off and you’re right, so many absolutely stunning vrieseas from Jack Koning.

Sue, hope you are not getting too much rain.

Wendy, probably not the best weekend for a brom sale but I am very pleased with those I got from you on Friday, thanks ... and thanks to Jen too.

Jean, there’s no doubt about it … you’re hooked. Love your new vrieseas

Hi everyone – It's good to see one or two of the regulars back again, I hope everyone had an enjoyable “Australia Day”, I know I did as I spent the best part of it potting up pups and seedlings. Some of the Neo. seedlings should have been done two years ago, that's how far behind I've got with my potting, but because of this the colour in them is more obvious than I would have been had they been potted when they should have been and consequently it had made it much easier for me to carry out the dreaded “culling process” as I have a much better idea of how these plants will mature (colour wise that is); it doesn't tell me what the shape will be like, but then what's the point of a beautifully shaped plant if it's devoid of colour?

We had a storm here last night and it's still raining this morning so at last we have some long overdue and much needed rain. It seems that a lot of our northern members were also in need of good rain as well but I hope none of them are being affected by the severe flooding occurring at present. It's typical that on Australia Day, the weather also reminds us that we are in fact living in Australia, a land of unsettled weather where it can be drought and bushfires in one part of the country and floods in another...yep, that's our Australia.

Jean – I'm not really a dedicated Vriesea or Guzmania grower but just grow a few for some variety in my collection,. All of my Vrieseas and “Guzzies”are grown beneath 50% green shade cloth in a shade house built off the southern (the shady area) of the house. I grow them in the same Brunnings Orchid Potting Mix that I grow my Neo's in and the only difference is that they get a bit more water. As well as being watered once a fortnight in winter and once a week in summer, they do seem to enjoy a bit of a spray with the hose each morning just to wet the foliage. I don't by any means keep the potting mix wet, just damp as they hate to dry right out. This was based on a tip from one of the posts from Jack Koning in the Garden Web Forums a few years back and as he is “The Master” Vriesea grower in my opinion, who am I to argue with what he says. I picked up a lot of tips from the original forums before the a new forum started up and most of the regular went over to that one.

So this may help to answer your question about potting mixes Jean and the fact that you say that your mix drains well is probably the most important factor to look at in any potting mix as they must never stay “wet”.

Breeindy – The plant you bought is indeed Vriesea Saundersii and I must say you got it at a bargain price because if you offered anyone down here $15 for a flowering plant such as that, they would look at you as though you had “two heads”.

Unlike most of the Vrieseas "hybrids" we see on here, this is a "species" and is native to Brazil. Unfortunately as soon as the word species is mentioned these days, a lot of growers immediately dismiss them as being “plain and unattractive” often with insignificant, uninteresting flowers and because of this they're often “given a back seat” in collections or overlooked completely.

All of the “patterned foliage” type Vrieseas we see today originated from parents which were in fact species, so we have a lot to thank species for. We should also remember that not all species are plain looking plants and some such as your Vr. Saundersii have the added bonus of an attractive foliage combined with an attractive inflorescence as well. The main attraction of this plant however, is its unusual grey/green foliage with subtle pinkish markings together with smooth edged leaves (for the “prickle haters” like myself) .

There are a few other Vr. Species available which also display nicely marked leaves and attractive inflorescences as well, and to name a few of the more easy to obtain ones, there is Vr. Capixabae, Vr. Guttata, Vr. Glutinosa, Vr. Ospinae, Vr. Platynema, Vr. Platynema variegata, Vr. Splendens and not forgetting of course, the “King of all Vrieseas”, Vr.Hieroglyphica.

Shirley – I hope you're not getting washed away up there like some in our northern areas. What a pity all of this rain that's lost to eventual “run off” couldn't be captured and stored in some way for use during the dry periods. It's very disheartening down here to see it all just running down the gutters to be eventually lost out into the ocean. I'm sure we have the technology to come up with some system to store all of this excess; after all, we were able to build the Snowy Hydro Electric Project way back in the 1950's, all we need is a forward thinking Government that's prepared to “bite the bullet” and make a start, instead of two political parties who are continually “point scoring”off each other and not getting the job done!

Sorry for that little "outburst", I'll get down off my soapbox now and post a few pic's to finish up with, and just to give the Vriesea topic a rest, I'll make them of a few Aechmeas. Pic.1 is Ae. Fasciata growing in my backyard Peppercorn Tree, Pic.2 is Ae. Leptantha, Pic.3 is Ae. Recurvata in my front garden with Ae Bromellifollia Albo-bracteata in the backgrowund, Pic.4 is Ae. Pectinata and Pic.5 is Ae. Orlandiana.

Oh and by the way, there is one little thing all of these Aechmeas have in common - they are all species!

Hi all, I had a relaxing day yesterday, cleaned up some branches fallen during the wind and rain, picked up a few fallen pots and potted some bits that were broken off. I have 2 Tills broken just above root level and now have them in scoria just to see what will happen. With luck they will grow new roots.

Nev nice Ae pectinata, looks like a pup coming on it. Mine when it flowered lost it's colour and the flower was a nothing of interest. It also has a pup on it. I also like your recurvata garden. I would have to agree with you on wastage by Government, you only mentioned water but there's more.I better leave it alone too.

Bree good buying with that Vr saundersii especially if you are interested in seed raising. I would have willingly paid that price or more for the seed potential and got a very nice breeder as a bonus. You were in the right place at the right time.
I got a Vr yesterday but I don't know which one it is. It also has 2 pups and came from Bunnings, the first brom that I have bought this year.I can't complain.

Jean I like your totem in pic 6, is it just a piece of pvc with holes in it. Looks good. I would have to agree that you are like us, addicted to bromeliads.Welcome to the club.
Have a good one.
Ian

I will say that one good thing about my garden is that I am confined as to where I can put broms, so that will keep me sane and not buying too many ...(I hope)

I have no more room in the greenhouse unless I move all the neos to the back shadehouse.
Having to downsize all the epis did make a lot more room down there for broms.
They get afternoon sun but are under beige shadecloth so I will just have to wait and see how they go.
I did have some neos burn in the greenhouse last year so put a piece of shadecloth over the side which did help. I cant leave many outside as the winter cold will get them.
I am trialling those under the brug,in the pic above They are partly under the tall gum canopy but still get a lot of sun. So far so good, but winter may be a different matter.

The totem idea was pinched from another brom lover here somewhere. I had quite a few small broms so this fixed a place for them.
Its just a piece of PVC as you say. Hubby made holes in it for me.
I stood it over a steel post and a few rocks for stability then filled with coir and a bit of potting mix.

Nev, thank you very much for putting those links up on vrieseas.
Nice to see that I had the right mix for the vrieseas.
I now need to have them all...
I will say one thing though, I may be now a "collector"of broms but I will not be breeding any as I had enough of that fiddly stuff with the epis and still have all my brugmanisa seeds to look after.

Hi everyone – I hope everyone's OK especially those of you in the north where the flooding is causing problems at present. Mother Nature can really get upset sometimes and come down on us severely , but then it would be a pretty boring life if every day was the same wouldn't it?

For those of you who are now copping heaps of rain and are worried about your plants becoming waterlogged, simply turn the pots on their side and this will solve the problem; whatever you do don't forget to stand them up again after the rain or the plants will start to grow sideways.

Ian – With the Till's broken off just above root level, why not try putting the base of one in the water in the cup of a Neoregelia? I have done this with small Vrieseas where I have accidently snapped them off too high up and have managed to get new roots growing in this way. I think it's probably worth a try as your Till's belong to the same Tillandsioidiae family as my Vrieseas did.

What you say about your Pectinata happened to mine as well, I find that they do go “in and out” of colour and just colour up when they are about to flower and like you say, I agree that the flower is certainly nothing to rave about and is very unspectacular; but they do make a nice feature plant in the garden when they are in colour even if they do take up a lot of space. I have found that in our area they are a bit prone to rot and I have lost one in this way, but it did put up a couple of pups so I guess I didn't really lose it. Other growers in our area have also commented on how they seem to rot easily so maybe we should be looking at a different method of culture; perhaps mounted on a tree where they won't hold as much water.

Perhaps if you are nice to Breeindy she will send you some fresh seed from her Vr. Saundersii if she gets some, I grew a lot of plants from this species' seed and had heaps of seed here for a while and gave a lot out but still had to toss a lot as I couldn't find a home for it.

It seems from your pic's that you and I have been doing the same thing, potting up seedlings. Apart from potting up about fifty pups off various plants I've potted-on about seventy seedlings into four inch pots over the weekend also. Now I just have to find somewhere to put them.

Looking at the foliage in your pic of the Vriesea NOID it could be one of two that are commonly circulating around N.S.W. and Queensland. They are Vr. 'Erotica 'and Vr. 'Tachete' Gold' and can both sometimes still be seen under the pre-registration name of simply “platynema hybrid”

They both have similar marking on the leaves but the 'Tachete Gold' sometimes has dark marking on the leaf tips (not always) and it also has yellow flowers with brown spotting on the inflorescence. Although 'Erotica' has similar leaf markings, the inflorescence is pink/red in colour.

Jean – It seems like we all (including yourself) now agree that you are a true bromeladdict and there's no more "beating about the bush" now that you've accepted you have this affliction. So best get on with it and buy heaps of brom's and enjoy them.

You say you have no more room in the greenhouse unless you move your brom's to the shade house, I was in this same situation a few years ago but had nowhere else to go, so I decided to go up. I started to hang my extra plants from the roof timbers even though a lot of the more experienced growers who were strong advocates for just growing on benches warned me not to do so.

I was told that the plants below would die due to wet feet caused by the extra water when watering the plants hanging above them and that if one of the hanging plants had some sort of disease it would quickly spread to the plants below, and I must say at one point I did have second thoughts, however the number of plants I was accumulating eventuality dictated what I had to do and that was start growing vertically.

The way I looked at it was that I was simply emulating Mother Nature as plants grow at many different heights on trees in the wild and don't seem to have a problem. Consequently what I now have are plants at ground level in the garden, plants on benches in the shade house and plants hanging at three different levels above the benches, and the plants couldn't be happier. I have a reasonably large collection and am proud to say that I've only ever lost a few plants due to rot because of other extreme circumstances i.e. water in the cups getting too hot during extreme hot weather. It has now reached the stage where I have many more plants hanging than I do on the benches and they do seem to enjoy the extra air circulation around them.

Now for a few pic's and the first three are for Ian to compare with his NOID Vriesea posted yesterday. Pic 1 is Vr. 'Tachete Gold' showing the marked leaf tips and the inflorescence, Pic.2 shows a close-up of the flowers of the same plant, Pic.3 is Vr. 'Erotica' and shows the different foliage to 'Tachete Gold' and the different coloured inflorescence. Pic.4 is a firm favourite of mine and is Vr 'Angela' and Pic.5 is another little favourite called Vr 'Gemma'

Hi again - As I can only post five pic's per post I have to post again as there are a few more pic's I wanted to show for Jean especially.

Pic.1 is Vr. 'Evita' (a division of the same plant I posted on the 24th.) Although the flowers are just about finished you can still clearly see that unlike the other “high light” grown plant, this one has green leaves from being in a low light area. Pic's 2, 3, 4, and 5 shows how I make the most of all available space in my shade houses.

Hello everyone.
Nev, your shadehouses are amazing. I would love to do the same. I can possibly do a lot of hanging in the back shadehouse because we built it ourselves with strong roof timber for hanging the epis. I will have to be careful because it is treated timber. I dont know what they treat it with these days. So far after 5 years, nothing has affected any plants at all in any of the shadehouses.
I cant hang anything in the greenhouse, because it is only a light one I bought on eBay years ago. The frame is not strong enough to hang anything from . Eventually all the plastic will crumble away and I will have just a shadehouse with only shadecloth over the frame.
I have a trellis as a divider on the benches in the back shadehouse so maybe I'll try hanging pots there.
I can also put up some wire to hang more pots.
I have lots of room on the ground under the benches ( 14' x 12' ) but cant grow broms under there in the low light.
Now you've done it Nev. I will be looking at more broms.

Hiall, another day and I relaxed again, separated a couple of plants, collected some seed and planted some of it, a mini called Black knight.. The 2 I separated were also stripey tiger types. The governors plea and Clarise. I had just been putting all my tiger style together but I missed Hanibal lector. I don't have at this time Norman Bates to complete the set. When I am meant to get it will appear for me.
We had internet outage for some hours as flood damage cut the lines.It also disrupted all eftpos transactions.Coles found a way to store transactions but Woolies only operated on cash. It is funny on how we depend on what we have and feel uncomfortable when we lose it.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 some vrs
Pic 2 wall of seedling house
Pic 3 a spider
Pic 4 Bil Pink Patches

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Australia Day! Also hope that everyone is safe and well with all this rain and flooding and that your homes have not been damaged.

Finally the internet and phones are back on, must admit the peace and quiet was nice but I did miss getting on the forum last night so instead started updating my bromeliad database as the last one I had was lost when our hard-drive crashed. I like keeping a list of all my bromeliads in this data base so I can print off a report when I need to keep track of what I have and how many I have of the one variety.

Hi Shirley thanks all my broms are well and the rain did them no harm. The needed a good drink of the real stuff and it’s so easy to notice the difference around the yard after a good bit of rain.

Shirley I really liked all the vriesea pics you posted on 23/01, especially Gigantea Nova. The one I have is doing really well but it is such a slow grower.

Hi Nev thanks yeah we got some good rain which was nice, now it’s gone and been replaced by the muggiest of heat, you just have to blink you eyelids and you burn into a sweat lol. Great to hear you finally got some much needed rain, your broms would have so benefited from some of the fresh stuff after all the scorching heat and wind they endured.

Nev that orchid potting mix that Joe uses is Scotts Osmocote that comes in a Pink 10Ltr bag, which costs under $9 per bag. Sometimes we can pick them up on special for $5. The spiel on the bag reads Contains Osmocote controlled release plant food – feeds plants for up to 12 months. Formulated with coir chips and graded composted pine bark, which provides easy anchoring for roots and moisture retention. Professional grade wetting agent added to ensure uniform wetting mix and prevent drying out. Sphagnum (fibre) moss for added moisture, air and nutrient control. Added Calcium to strengthen pseudo bulbs and flower stems, and encourage strong disease resistance.

Thanks Nev, yeah I was thrilled to bits with the vriesea that Joe got me as a surprise, it really stands out amongst my other vrieseas and is the most colourful one I have so far. Thanks also for providing the link, I had a good look at the other 16 registered vrieseas starting with the name “Maroochy” and was blown away by their beauty, wouldn’t it be nice to own them all.

Nev I am looking forward to reading some of the vriesea links you included over the past couple of days, I have a bit of reading to catch up on by the looks of things, but it will be nice to learn something more about vrieseas and how to care for them.

Nev you have posted some beautiful brom pics these past couple of day, I drooled over all of them.

Hi Jean I really liked all the vriesea pics you posted on 25/01, I especially liked the large wide green with a hint of lime leaves on Franklin Forest. I also really liked how you have your vrieseas set-up in your greenhouse. Nice to see you also look after your old brom mums that you have in your back shadehouse.

Jean pleased to hear you came out and admitted your a bromoholic and that you are already on the case looking for more room to keep them all LOL. I know I am totally addicted to the buggers, life would not be the same without them and I truly relax when I am around them tending to their needs. The trouble is it is easy to forget all the other stuff you have to do around the place non brom related LOL.

Hi Bree you did well with the purchase of that beautiful vriesea Saundersii, I don’t have this one but know what it looks like and yes you have got its name right. It looks like a good size plant and looks really healthy.

Hi Sue sounds like you have been really busy, we miss hearing from you and seeing your beautiful pics, hope you get your camera problem downloading sorted.

Hi Ian, nice vriesea pics you posted. Sounds like we experienced the same internet issues, were your phones down too? Did you get a lot of rain?

Hi everyone – Still the rain continues up north and the flood damage is devastating. It's been raining steadily down here as well, but nothing compared to what the northern areas are copping. I hadn't been down among the plants since the rain started and late yesterday afternoon I decided I had better close my wind shutters in view of the gale force winds predicted for last night which fortunately for us didn't occur.

What I did notice during my brief tour of the yard during the pouring rain was that a lot of Ae. Fasciatas are starting to flower (about twenty in all in different parts of the yard). It seems that what ever is in the rain has done something to bring them all into flower at once, something I've never seen before. As I've said before, they are one of the most common of all brom's but still one of my favourites and I don't think any other brom has a flower that can compete with that beautiful pale pink colour of Fasciata bracts just prior to flowering.

I suppose the next thing that will hit us down here will be the possibility of rot. After the plants have all gone through the stress of the two heatwave days they will obviously still be suffering the effects and their resistance to disease will be much less than normal. I have treated everything with Seasol post heatwave days and now as soon as the rain stops I'll start hitting them with the Condy's Crystals as it's known to control Powdery Mildew and I'm hoping it may also be a deterrent to rot as well; however I can only try and see.

Jean – You mention that your shade house is built from “treated timber” and you're not sure what it is treated with, so it's probably in everyone's best interest if I explain a little about this product here..

Since 1933 some of the timber we buy for external use has been CCA treated. This means it is treated with Copper, Chromium and Arsenic; this is used to prolong the life of the timber and protect it from insect and fungal attack. The thing is, that one of these ingredients is poisonous to bromeliads and that is the “Copper”; and if this should leach out of the timber and drip onto any brom's below, it will quickly poison them (I know this from experience as I lost a lot of plants to “Copper Poisoning” when I was first starting into brom's). Strangely, it seems that bromeliads are the only plants to be poisoned by the copper and other plants, even delicate ferns grow happily in shade houses constructed from this timber with no apparent damage

This doesn't mean you shouldn't use this treated timber and I think it's a good product for shade house construction which lasts well and if prepared correctly will not poison your plants. While ever the copper is contained within the timber it will cause no harm to your plants, so the trick is to keep it in the timber so it can't leach out during heavy rain or watering of plants. To do this it should first be given a coat of a good quality "oil based primer" (not acrylic), followed by a coat of oil based undercoat and finished with one or two top coats of a good quality oil based enamel paint. I know this is a lot of work and needs to be done preferably prior to construction, but it does work and protects the plants from contamination. I know this, as I have prepared all of my timber in this way and had no problems since.

Two important things to remember when using CCA treated timber are: Reseal all cut surfaces with the same method of painting as mentioned above and only use stainless steel or ‘hot-dip’ galvanised plates, bolts and nails.

There is also another product on the market called “Wax Wood” and after enquiring at a timber yard I was informed it also has copper as one of the active chemicals used as a preservative and if the timber cracks as it often does during ageing , the copper can still leach out and poison brom's so it too needs to be painted as mentioned above.

Ian – I too was once a fan of the “Tiger Types” but once I started taking Warfarin, I had to give them all away as every time I touched a prickle I was bleeding like a “stuck pig” and it was a bloody nuisance. Fortunately with the Vrieseas you have pictured, there is no such problems and I often wonder why all brom's aren't spineless, it would make things much simpler.

I never thought about phone lines down and internet outages due to flooding; maybe that's why we aren't getting too many posts during the last few days.

In you Pic.4 of the little Billbergia 'Pink Patches', are these seedlings from 'Pink Patches' and if so do you know who the other parent was?

What a strange looking little spider, I've never seen one with blue/green colouring on it before, do you know what type it is?

Trish – Good to see you're off the sick list and back posting again. Thanks a lot for the info about the potting mix Joe uses. The only thing I'd be wary of is the fact that it contains a fertiliser and if like other mixes containing fertilisers, probably doesn't indicate what the NPK is. I'll have to look for it at Bunnings and read what the label has to tell me about it as everything else you say sounds good but I at $9 for just a 10kg bag, that's almost $1 per Kg and far too expensive for any non-working retiree with a large collection.

I like the fact that it has coir chips and graded composted pine bark though as I have been trialling a mix of 50/50 composted pine bark and coir mulch and getting very good results with it. I think the Coir products are very good for brom growing and I use the very fine for tiny seedlings and have also used the very coarse mulch chunks for large Aechmeas with good results.

Nice pic's of Vrieseas you have posted I'm especially interested in the first one which again supports the theory of “Seed parent influences shape and size. Pollen parent influences the colour". It would be interesting to see a reverse cross where Angela was used as the pollen parent just to see if it passed on its nice colouring (See Pic.4 of the first lot of pic's I posted yesterday). I haven't seen Neo ‘Von Cos’ before, what an interesting colour combination it has, most unusual.

Anyway, I've said enough today so I'll finish up now, unfortunately no pic's today as it's too wet to take any and I've probably shown most of my file pic's before anyway.

Hope everyones ok!
We just had a little bit of water in our yard at high tide today. I just have my Broms and the bottom shelves of my orchids to move to higher ground the rest is ok. The raised garden beds came in handy, everythings sitting up on it hehe! Nothing planted in it yet waiting on the taps to get dug in.
Our house and shed are up high.

Hi all, another hot steamy day today. I just had a look around and watered some seedlings, the ones growing upstairs. That is where I start them. It is well protected and I live in this area most of the time.
Nev I have no idea what type of spider it is, it has a light sting when it bites though and it still lives. Mother Nature pollinated the Bil Pink patches and almost all of the seeds here. I have only tried a few Ae Aztec gold X anagelia Madam lash and reverse. I got 9 seeds from 1 pod on aztec gold, that is all that formed seed, 6 seedlings had no green colour and the remaining 3 look reasonable. I have not as yet found set seed on madam lash. I have not as yet worked out how to pollinate Aechmeas, this could be due to the fact that I start work at 6.00 am and havent seen the flower ready. Ae pectinata has plenty of seed in the pods, I wonder if it has selfed or whether some act of nature fertilised the seed. I have a feeling that a lot of plants might self fertilise. Just a feeling.I am not running around splashing pollen about.

Trish according to our weather reports we had 82 mm of rain, but I wonder which storm that was in. We didn't have huge amounts and there is little on the surface, except in the wetlands to be seen. Yes the phones were out as well.
We survived and now after 50 years of paying my cigarette taxes I have achieved day 1 smoke free. I have paid my dues in this area and now the Government can find another way to tax me. They will if I spend my money.
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Neo Grace X Passion
Pic 2 Ae pectinata flower head and 1 seed pod
Pic 3 North west floor
Pic 4 North west wall
Pic 5 under the lime tree

well good on you Ian for quitting smoking, and good luck with sticking to it. Definitley not an easy thing to do, but you will have more money for
bromeliads or garden needs to keep you motivated.
Bree, your raised garden beds look like a great idea to battle any flood threat. I guess you are cut off north and south?
We had 280mm of rain since saturday, but the predicted winds didn't happen so not much damage to report, thank goodness. No flooding either.
Nev, I love the pics of your shade houses and gardens, and its always good to have a refresher course on the effects of treated timber in the shade house e.t.c. Re your Neo. 'Ashanti', You got the pup from me, and mine was from jen, so we all have the same clone. I guess its just growing conditions that give them the varying colours. I think mine resembles Cliff Siverd also.
Trish, I managed to get all the bromeliad photos off my camera and on to the computer, AND got the SD card back in and operating. I have a feeling there might have been condensation in the camera, so the contacts were'nt touching. Anyway, i will have to see what I have, and hope i haven't posted it already.
Jean. Nice to see you posting regularly. Sometimes it can get a bit quiet when everyone is busy with family or garden work, and an extra in the bromeliad thread helps to keep it active.
As we are getting closer to feb, does anyone want to have a go at starting the new thread in a couple of days? You need to open two tabs, start a new topic in the Australian gardening forum, then copy and paste the link into this thread, and vice versa in the new one. Be sure to use your best bromeliad photo as it will be visible to anyone looking at the aussie forum. Dmail me if you have any trouble, or need further instructions. I'm happy to do it, but am happy for someone else to give it a go.
Hello to Jen, Wendy, Kristi, Shirley, and Karen (if you're looking in) and anyone else I have unintentionally missed
now, photos
pic one is Aechmea orlandianas and hybrids
pic two is the Aehmea bench
pic three is mostly Billbergias
pic four is Nidularium 'Ruby Lee' just starting to pup up
Pic five is Cryptanthus 'Osyrus' I think.
Sue

Sorry everyone typed my thread and lost the whole bloomin thing and it's getting too late to start again as have an early start tomorrow. You would think I would have learnt from the last time it happened - BUT NO for some reason I thought I would get away with it today and prove to myself that it does not always happen but when I pressed Enter on my keyboard it threw me back into the login screen when I was already logged in?

Great pics everyone, I will hopefully look at replying to everyone's threads tomorrow if all goes well and this time I will type in a word doc like normal people do.

Don't you hate it when you have to crack the shits with yourself because of repeated stupidity. I'm off to bed to try and sleep it off LOL.

Hi everyone – I hope you all have survived all the rain and floods with little or no damage, however there will probably be those of you up north who have lost plants which is very disappointing. For any of our regulars who have suffered major damage to their collection, please drop me a line and let me know what you have lost and if I can, I will send you some replacements to help you re-build again. (free of charge of course)

I battened down the hatches so to speak on Monday night in preparation for the heavy rain and gale force winds that were forecast for yesterday; fortunately we were spared and most of it took a left turn and went out to sea and just left us with some light continuous rain.

Breeindy – It's good to see you have dodged any severe flood damage to both yourself and your plants, it seems you have found another use for the raised garden beds other than just growing plants in.

Ian – Good to hear you've given up the dreaded nicotine addiction. It's over forty years since I stopped and the first thing I noticed was how much more flavour food had. I was fortunate as I stopped just the day before going on holidays with my wife and father-in-law (both non-smokers) and I feel it was because of this that I only had withdrawal symptoms for the first couple of days. When ever I talk to a smoker now and can smell the smoke on their breath, I think to myself, “bloody hell I used to stink like that once” but it's something you can't smell yourself while ever you are a smoker.

What helped me make up my mind to stop was a training video I watched during one of our ambulance training sessions on chest injuries. It was of a post mortem of an eighteen year old traffic accident victim and at the end of the film the doctor doing the lecture said that maybe his final demonstration might just save someone's life in the future, and he pulled back a sheet showing the lungs of a heavy smoker; believe me they do look like the ones on the backs of cigarette packs, all grey with muck oozing from the air pockets, he then compared them with the nice clean pink coloured lungs of the accident victim who was a non-smoker. I walked out of that room and threw my smokes in the bin and have never smoked since.

Apart from the usual old age health issues we all get as we get older, I can say I've never felt better and I congratulate anyone like Ian who has taken the wise step of giving it up. Just one little thing I'll mention that I found, and that was during the first few weeks I had never coughed so much as my body was re-adjusting and trying to get rid of the rubbish I had consumed over all of those years. So if it affects you the same way, don't despair, just persevere, it will pass and it will definitely get better …...Congratulations and Goodonya!

I don't know if Ae. Pectinata self pollinates naturally due to the flower parts being able to fertilise themselves but it's certainly possible for insects (mainly ants) to do the job for them. My plant always had heaps of seed also (which I wasn't responsible for) but I never tried to grow it as I found that two very large plants of Pectinata took up sufficient garden space without me adding any more, but it would be interesting to try if you have sufficient space to grow a few on.

I love the colours in you Neo 'Grace x 'Passion', it's a cross that produced some nicely coloured plants favoured by most growers. I'm also drawn to the very dark Neo in your last picture, do you have a name for it?

Sue – Good to heard from you again. I'll bet it was great not to get the flood damage that was expected and now you will be able to get back to the usual brom growing instead of proactive flood protection work.

Thanks for the info on 'Ashanti'; in fact after I had posted that pic, I went down the yard and had a look at the name tag and saw that it had come from you, but it still amazes me that our two plants can look so different to Jen's.

It would be no good me trying to start a new thread as I'd definitely stuff it all up, so I'm quite happy to leave it to someone who knows what they're doing, (someone such as yourself).

That's a nice collection of Ae. Orlandiana plants you have there, they are an amazing plant with many colour changes as they mature. I've always been going to photograph one of them progressively from pup to maturity just so I have a record of the colour changes and I think we would all be surprised if we saw the different pic's all set out side by side for comparison.

I see Ae Fasciata is flowering up in your area as well; as I said yesterday they seem to be popping out all over the place down here just since the rain started. What is the name of the first tall group of deep pink Bill's in your Pic.3 and also what are the names of the ones showing all the white at the rear? Is there any chance of a closer shot when you get a chance sometime down the track?... and what can I say about Nidularium 'Ruby Lee' a beautiful and unusual plant and a “must” for all collections.

Trish – Don't despair, we've all done what you did from time to time and you've just jogged my memory to hit the "save button" as I type this little lot in case my old computer decides to shut itself down unexpectedly (something it's been doing lately) oh for the joys of electronic technology! Anyway, we look forward to hearing from you and seeing some pic's of your great plants in your next post .

I'll just finish today with some random shots I took yesterday in between showers, the first one shows some of the Ae.Fasciata plants coming into flower which I spoke of yesterday. Pic.2 is Ae Fendleri, and the others are mainly of my favourites; Neoregelias.

Hope everyone is safe and well and has been spared any damage from the nasty flood waters. I am still trying to get in touch with a friend who lives in Brisbane, not sure what part she now lives in as she recently moved and I am yet to get her new address details. Both her mobile and landline are unserviceable so I am naturally worried because I want to hear her voice and know she is ok.

So I don’t experience a repeat of what happened yesterday when I lost my entire thread, made “absolutely” sure today that I typed this thread in Word. I was so angry with myself yesterday for making the same mistake that I should have learnt from the last time. Joe thought it was very funny and got a bit of a laugh at how annoyed I was with myself when I had my hissy fit and stormed off to bed.

Gosh it was hot out there today 35deg’. We jumped in the pool hoping to cool off as soon as I got home but the water was like jumping into a very warm cup of soup. It felt nice when we got out though with a bit of a breeze blowing to cool us off a bit. We have been trying not to use the air-con during the night but I had to turn it on last night because I just could not handle the heat anymore, plus Lucy woke me up puffing and panting wanting to go out for a wee.

Hi Nev pleased to hear you also got a good bit of rain for your broms and garden. We noticed a big difference around the yard after the rain how much everything benefited from it. We want to put a water tank in but our priority is getting solar power first, our hot water system is solar power but we want to get the rest done as we were shocked to get a $926 power bill in the mail last week when our power usage was slightly higher last year and the bill was only about $720, so how can they justify a $200 increase? My friend who lives a couple of streets back said hers’ was also $200 more than last summer. Any other times of the year our bills normally around the low $500.

Nev fantastic brom pics you have posted these past couple of days, all your broms look healthy and happy so that forward planning you did with the Seasol treatment program looks like it worked a treat. I discovered a bit of burn on some of my more sun hardy broms much to my disappointment so have had to move them into a bit of shade for now until things cool down a bit. Nev what was Pic 5 Neo that you posted today it’s gorgeous, reminds me of Camelot?

Nev yeah it would be interesting to see what my Vriesea ‘Angela x White Bands’ would look like if it was the reverse and Angela was the pollen parent. I can’t believe how big this vriesea is growing since when we first purchased as a pup, its leaves are growing nice and wide and her colors really appeal to me. The pic you recently posted of your Vriesea ‘Angela’ was lovely, I have a couple of semi-mature pups of ‘Angela’ that still have a lot more coloring up to do so it’s nice to see from your pic how pretty they should hopefully grow up like.

Nev pleased to hear you liked Neo ‘Von Cos’, the buyer I purchased it from said it’s yet to be registered.

Nev that Orchid mix that Joe uses only states on the packet that it’s Osmocote controlled release feeding for 12 months. I occasionally use it on my Neo pups when I have run out of my normal mix and they seem to luv it. I have also on the odd occasion used it when repotting my Neo Mums and it has not stripped them of any of their color, but I still prefer the brom mix I use because the mix is more course which I think is much better for the health of my broms so the mix does not stay too wet for too long and cause any rot problems.

Nev that’s really kind of you offering to any regulars who have suffered major damage to their collection possible replacement plants to re-build their collection. I would like to join in and help where I can too as I have pups popping up here and there but they still have a bit of growing to do, but by all means drop me a line and let me know what you have lost and I can see if I can help with the re-build.

Hi Bree so very pleased to hear and see that you did not get flooded out and only got a little bit of water in your yard on high tide. The raised garden beds look great and by the looks of you pics came in very handy, will you plant broms in these? Glad also to hear you house and shed are up high and safe.

Hi Ian CONGRATULATIONS on quitting smoking, been there done that nearly 15 years ago I quit and it’s the best thing I have ever done for my body. I just kept rolling them and giving them to other people who smoked and would not quit until I had none left to roll and give away.

Ian we were the same with the rain, only a bit laying here and there to be seen but the wetlands behind us is nearly full again, I will have to take a picture as it is very pretty with all the paper-bark trees in the water with their shadows reflected in the water and we are also seeing a lot more bird life than usual which is great. Nice brom pics too you posted yesterday, they all look very healthy and happy.

Hi Sue great to see you back and pleased to hear you guys did not experience any damage or flooding to your place. Luved all the brom pics you posted, glad to see the SD card is working again. It was great to see a pic of your Nid’ ‘Ruby Lee’ pupping up, mine is still relatively and young pup so its pleasing to see what it will look like when it grows up as your one is gorgeous.

Anyway time to put the kettle on!

Hi to anyone looking in or maybe on the Sick List, hope I have not missed replying to anyone tonight and if I have not intentional.

Hi everyone. well we have had a wild weekend and lost power for several days. fridges and freezers had to be cleaned out and food dumped. power came back on yesterday morning. we do rely on the power and when we lose it we realise how much we depend on it. Of course our sale was a fizzer in the awful weather. Saturday wasn't too bad even with the rain. Sunday we didn't even open the gates with the awful wind but we stil have 3 lots ringing the bell on the small gate and wanting to come in to look at plants. we took their money and raced back upstairs to stay dry. our son in Hervey Bay did warn us about the wind he got up there and advised we put everything away especially empty pots as he didn't think of them and found them everywhere. so we did have a big tidy up, carried all our tables still fll of plants in under the house and shut the 2 garage doors. all the big plants up on top shelves were lifted down onto the ground so we didn't have many plants blown down. some of the hanging ones did blow off the barbed wire strings and had to be repotted.

After reading all the posts I've missed, my eyes are really in need of a rest now. I am having a problem with one eye and have a 'floater' which is an airbubble in the vitrious or something so when I blink it looks like little worms swimming across the eye. I have to rest it and place no pressure on it ad it should settle down in about 6 weeks. I was very worried when I woke up and had black bits across the eye. I kept thinking of the old lady behind us who goes from her bedroom to her lounge chair each day and is almost totally blind. she can't see what is happening outside, can't watch TV or read a book or do any kind of knitting or crochet or anything. just sits there counting the days till the end. I don't want to end up that way but that's what I thought last THursday before I raced off to the optometrist.

So I must be off to bed now to rest this eye. can't see the screen properly with these little black things swimming across it. LOL. haven't been on the computer too much with it. I'll post some pics tomorow night. can't remember all the things I read now and want to reply to.
Pic 1 is the trees down around our place after the wild winds on the weekend.
Pic 2 is a seedlings we got from Alan Ladd ae recurvata benrathii x ae wielbachii leodensis. I love the cute little flowers appearing now.
Pic 3 is a pic of Raby Bay which is usually dead calm but with the wind we had 3ft waves crashing onto the rocks and over onto the grass. you can just see the mast on a boat sitting on the bottom. can't even tell how big it is as you couldn't see it under the dark churning water.
Pic 4 is neo bob's baby. we have a few of these colouring up nicely at the moment. we were given an old mum of this and have harvested a few pups now. they're looking lovely now and getting big.

Hi all,It was another very hot day, 36 at5.00pm, Monday was 41 at 3.00pm and yesterday felt just as hot at work.
Nev that dark plant in my last pic id Neo Voodoo or Midnight and it has a stripe down one of it's leaves.
I have seen all the horrrible picies health related to smoking, not a deterrant. I had a brother die of lung cancer and that didn't slow my smoking down. I think that now I just have had enough smokes. An encouragement factor that I am using is the price of 1 pack a day multiplied by 1000 , that is only 2 3/4 years . Corner shop price at $27.40 x 1000 is a new car, a big mortgage reduction or a lot of broms and some bush house. Who cannot afford to make that change. I simply cannot afford to keep burning my money. I don't want to work til I'm 85 just to pay off my mortgage. I am having trouble sleeping at the moment but I am sure this tooo will pass.
No pics tonight , I am too lazy to look for them.
Have a good one
Ian

Hi everyone – Well it's good to see the worst of the rain has gone and I can't help but feel sorry for all of those poor people with the mammoth jobs of cleaning up in front of them. I heard on the news last night that the Govt. is sending in 200 troops from our army to assist so that should help a bit, but just the same, what a hell of a job to look forward to, especially those poor people who copped it previously just two years ago.

I saw an interview with a lady who had been washed out in this flood as well as the previous one and was still waiting for her insurance claim from the previous flood to be processed. It doesn't help to build confidence in insurance companies does it? Just another “necessary evil” run by greedy “blood suckers” who are quick to take your money but very slow when it comes to a payout.

Once again I'll send a cherrio to anyone on the sick list and our hopes that anyone in the flood areas are all OK and the fact that we haven't heard from you is just a matter of power outages or being busy cleaning up; as they say, no news is good news.

Trish – It was a bit “muggy” here yesterday as well, but I just did the usual and set myself up with my potting bench in the garage and continued with my potting chores while I waited for the dreaded phone call from my mechanic to say he had found some major problem with my old ute that would prevent it from getting a pink slip. It's an old 1988 Toyota Hilux Ute and the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned and when I can't register it any more it will be like the death of a close friend. The good news is that the phone call never came and it has a twelve month reprieve from “death row”, so back to normal once again, “two oldies together”.

That plant you asked about in Pic.5 of yesterday's pictures came to me with just the name “Mulford Foster hybrid” (which could mean anything ). It could mean it was a hybrid made by Mulford Foster (an American hybridist) or it could be the result of a crossing using a Neo. called 'Mulford Foster' (if there is such a thing). I do remember checking it against the BCR previously and finding there was no such hybrid registered, so I can't tell you any more. It came to me from a grower in Queensland who I have swapped quite a few plants with and it was he who recommended it to me “sight unseen” and I do like it and I was never sorry I got it; I must agree with you that it does look very similar to Neo. 'Camelot' and I have sometimes wondered if perhaps it has been accidentally given the wrong name.

I'm not “patting myself on the back” just yet about my preventative treatment of my brom's as it will be another two weeks at least before I know if the excessive rain following the heat has started any rot or not, so all I can do for now is to cross my fingers, hope for the best and enjoy what plants I have while I still have them.

What I can't get over though is the speed at which they have grown in just the last week, pups have increased in size dramatically and are almost keeping ahead of the weeds. I do have one problem that I'm aware of though and that's a weed I imported with a Neo. I bought from a lady in our club. She said she thought it looked “cute” growing around the top of the pot and really setting the plant off; but I can tell you that once the pot was put in the garden among the other plants and a bit of this weed touched the ground, it”took off” and is now growing rampant through everything and I fear I'll have to remove everything from that garden to eradicate it. I don't know what it's called but I'll post a pic for you all as a warning as soon as I can get a good close-up of it.

Do you know if that Neo ‘Von Cos' was a local hybrid from the buyer you purchased it from or from the person he purchased it from? I'm just interested to see “who's doing what” on the local front.

I look forward to seeing some nice pic's of your “paper barks” in the water with the reflections highlighting them, they are really a most unusual and beautiful tree which certainly attracts a multitude of bird and insect life as well as the odd tree snake.

Wendy – Good to hear from you again and that you're both OK after all of the rain. You make a very valid point when you say about putting all of the empty pots away so they can't become missiles in the wind. We usually think of most things due our “battening down the hatches” process and small things like these are often overlooked, but even though they are light in weight, they can still cause damage when blown into a plant with some force and this is quite apart from the fact that they may get blown over the fence never to be seen again!

Sorry to hear about your “floater”; it's not until we get something like this wrong with our eyes that we realise just how much we take our sight for granted, fortunately it's not usually a serious problem and often heals itself, but common sense will dictate the treatment which is to rest the eyes, put down the book and turn off the TV for a few days. If that doesn't help, see your GP and get a referral to an Eye Specialist, go right to the top, not just an optometrist.

I bought a couple of those Ae. benrathii x Ae wielbachii seedlings from Allan also but mine haven't flowered yet. He does do some interesting crosses as well as bi-generic crosses as well and it's always good to get something that's new as well as a bit different.

Neo 'Bob's Baby' is a nice brom, I've had it for a few years now and was interested to see that it is a crossing registered in 1997 and made by Grace Goode. It was made by crossing two of the “Aussie Dream” grex with each other which makes it an Aussie Dream F2. I have found that it will grow into rather a large plant when planted in the garden.

Ian – I had suspected that your “dark” plant in the pic was Neo 'Voodoo', but it's just that it has a much better shape than mine which made me question the name; you've done a good job of growing that one. Hopefully you might be able to one day produce a variegated plant starting from the one you now have with just that “one stripe”, who knows? In the past some good variegated plants have been produced by starting from a plants with some vague markings such as a single stripe.

You've made a good start with your “stop smoking” campaign by looking at a very good “positive” to come out of the result, and that is you'll have stacks of money to buy brom's with and they won't effect your health, (they might just stab you to death instead). Keep up the good work!

A few more pic's to finish with which were taken around the garden after the rain a couple of days ago.

things are slowly getting back to normal here. We had no water damage around the house but most of the work we had done down the hill got washed away, good thing I hadn’t planted any broms down there yet. We really needed rain but not the 6 inches we got in 24 hours or less and the gale force winds that accompanied it.

We have a BIG clean up, lots and lots of branches and one huge gum tree came down. I have never heard so many chainsaws in the area at one time as almost every property had big trees blow over. We have had our power restored but a few people in the area are still without electricity due to a number of power poles either blowing over or snapping off.

I will have to make this really quick, just wanted to let everyone know everything is OK here. Except for the internet that is … so it might be a little while before you hear from me again.

Another hot day here today 34 deg’ and 58 humidity; was stinking hot when I was out in the sun.

Hi Wendy great to hear from you and see that you guys are safe and well, sounds like you guys experienced some rough weather and it would have been horrible loosing power for those couple of days. We went through the same thing with Cyclone Yasi, where we lost power for a couple of days and there was a lot of debris everywhere in the gardens but our houses were spared luckily. Wendy your eye “floater” sounds like it is causing you a lot of discomfort; I hope you feel better soon and that it is not causing you any pain. It’s bad enough just getting dust or grit in your eye, I managed to flick potting mix in my eye on the weekend and it wept for hours afterwards and felt sensitive for a couple of days afterwards because I had trouble flushing it all out so I think it ended up scratching the surface.

Hi Ian you had incentive like I did in quitting smoking as we lost two parents to C from smoking and that was a huge wakeup call for me and our other family members.

Ian I laughed when you said no pics tonight as I am too lazy to look for them, I am sure we all get our days like that, I know sometimes by the time I have typed my thread I look at the time and think shit I better get to bed it’s getting late so have to say bugger looking for pics especially if I have no new pics. I posted some old ones last night and will probably do same tonight.

Hi Nev glad to hear your car is still on the road for another year, I luv some of the old ones because that just keep going and going and yeah I agree they become a good friend because we can rely on them. My favorite car I ever owned was a LH Torana 1976 (hope I got the year right as so long ago) if I ever get a car to rebuild with Joe it would have to be another Torana. I miss my baby (sad face) lol. We have been talking about taking on another car project at some stage but solar power must come first.

Nev thanks for providing info on your Neo ‘Mulford Foster hybrid’, what a beauty. Pleased to hear your broms and pups are growing really well, I too have noticed things doing well around the garden, especially since the rain we got coupled by me feeding them, pups are popping up everywhere.

Nev in relation to your question about Neo ‘Von Cos’, all the seller said was that they had purchased it from a well-known importer and that as yet had not been registered. The seller lives in QLD.

Beautiful random brom pics you posted Nev, colors and size of them are amazing.

Sorry Nev I forgot to take pics of the paper bark trees in the wetlands, got side tracked watering broms in the front yard as I needed to flush centers out as they were full of golden cane palm fruit. I will take some on the weekend.

Hi Shirley so great to hear from you and know that you are all safe and well. Sorry to hear your new garden bed got washed away, thank goodness you hadn’t planted any of your beautiful broms there yet. 6 inches in 24 hours too much too soon along with gale force winds, so sad to hear you lost a beautiful big gum tree. Anyway take care and look forward to hearing from you when things are back to normal for you. Hope you did not lose any of your beautiful broms to damage.

Hi all, just fooled around with seed search here today. I am not sure of what I collected but with luck Anagelia madam Lash is the Mother plant. Some of the seeds look misshaped and others look undersized. If I am lucky I may get a few seeds. I cheked some seedling trays today again and found that my pineapple Ananas tricolour seeds have germinated and have taken off and 1 is nearly half inch high in 1 month. I am still experimenting, what will I try next. Maybe it will be to listen to those who know a bit more than me and then I could learn from others.
Nice pics all
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Ananas tricolour seedlings planted 03-01=13
Pic 2 Bush house gate
Pic 3South east of bush house

Hi everyone – Good to hear that so far none of our members have suffered any serious damage due to the flooding. There are still a few to check in though so please get in touch as soon as you can, I'm hoping it's just problems with computers and power problems that are keeping you away and nothing more serious.

My memory was jogged when Shirley said she had never heard so many chain saws going at the one time in her area. Let's hope they are all legitimate operators and not some of the “crooked, burgling bast..ds” that were working in the Townsville area after cyclone "Yasi". A friend of mine who is elderly with major health problems had a tree come down in his back yard. It wasn't a very big tree with a trunk of just about 12” thick and all he needed was for someone to cut it up for him in bits big enough to handle comfortably as his son had a ute. and was able to take it away for him.

When the blokes came, they started the job while he was at just the doctors for about one hour and when he came home they were just finishing and he was presented with a bill for $800 dollars. Obviously being a pensioner and one of the “old school” he thanked them while he went to the bank to get the money; meanwhile, his wife even made them morning tea would you believe. But what sort of mongrels would charge $800 for an hours easy work, I mean there were only three of them and it didn't even involve any climbing as the tree was already on the ground, all that had to be done was cut it up without removal; it seems these “scum of the earth” always seem to target the old people who can least afford it as they know they're from the “old school” and will pay up as soon as the job's done, if not before!

Shirley – sorry to hear that all the work you did “down the hill” got washed away, but at least your both alright and so are your brom's, and the work can be done again. It's bad luck about losing the gum tree, but it does create an opportunity to plant another tree with rough bark which would be suitable for growing brom's on.

From what you say it sounds like there will be problems with the internet for a while yet so we look forward to hearing from you again when it's all sorted out and until then, be thankful you escaped any serious damage and “Happy Gardening”.

Trish – I find that as I get older, it's not so much that the heat bothers me, but the high humidity. It really sucks out all of my energy and just takes away all of the enjoyment from working in the garden.

One of the best cars we ever owned was a Holden "Torana" also, 1978 sedan but don't ask me what the letters in the name were as I never understood them and still don't. We went everywhere in that car and three kids all learnt to drive in it but in the end it succumbed to the salt air and the dreaded "metal cancer" eventually killed it.

From what you say about the Neo 'Von Cos' it may have been Len and Olive Trevor who imported it as they import a lot of plants and I'm led to believe even have their own quarantine house. No doubt we'll find out when it eventually gets registered. This brings me to the subject of registration and I can now say that at last I've finally weakened and registered one of my hybrids. I know I always said I'd never do it as there are just so many things with that system that I don't agree with; but I just got so tired of people looking at the plant and asking why I didn't register it that I finally relented and “bit the bullet” (See Pic.1)

I'm pleased you forgot to take pic's of your Paper Bark Trees as I now still have something to look forward to, so maybe in a day or two we'll see them.

You've posted some nice pic's as usual but can you tell me the name of the big Neo. in Pic.3 ? It's the one that looks like it has Neo. Concentrica in its family history and is situated behind the albo-marginated plant.

Ian – It's interesting that you say how quickly your pineapple seeds are growing. Since I started growing seed I have found that the larger the seed is, the quicker it seems to grow. I wonder if this is a general rule or just a “random thing” with the seeds I have planted. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

You say, “Maybe it will be to listen to those who know a bit more than me and then I could learn from others”; it's true you will learn from others, but then how did they gain their knowledge in the first place? I'm sure it can be traced back to people like yourself who want to “push the boundaries” and continually try new and different things. So don't stop experimenting as you no doubt will find something that you too can pass on to other growers like myself and the others on this site; after all isn't growing brom's all about learning new techniques and sharing your findings with others.

You certainly have a very interesting mixed collection there; the beauty of a mixed collection is that because all of the plants have different rates of growth and different flowering times, there is always something different to see; that's the beauty of a mixed collection and what makes it so interesting.

I have to ask what the plant at the top of the second picture is growing in, is it an empty coconut shell or some type of seed pod from a large palm? Come on, don't hold out on us, “Spill the Beans”!

Finally a few pic's to finish with; Pic.1 is the seedling which I registered and spoke of above. It was from my first ever cross which was Neo Concentrica x ['Charm' x 'Cracker Jack']. I have registered it as Neo 'Dunmore Ruby' as “Dunmore” was where I had a very happy childhood and eventually met and married my wife of 49 years and “Ruby” because of the foliage colour. I think the main attraction that catches people's eye is that at certain times of the day it seems to take on a certain “iridescence” (which probably isn't the right word to describe it) but it has a natural type of gloss which seems to make it “glisten” and sort of "glow". To see more pic's go to: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=11265#11265
The next four are more of the random pic's taken around the yard after the recent rain with Pic.2 being Neo. 'Lambert's Pride', Pic.3 is Nid. 'Litmus', Pic.4 is Neo 'Rosella' going through one of its many colour changes and finally Pic.5 which are a few plants recently re-potted.

We just got back from a friends place so thought I would jump on line to see if anyone has posted tonight, not looking good so far.

Hi Nev pleased to hear that one of the best cars you ever owned was a Holdan “Torana” 1978. I cried when I had to sell my LH Torana 1976 and to this day have never forgiven myself.

Nev in relation to Neo ‘Von Cos’ and who you think may have imported it, unfortunately I am not familiar at all with Len and Olive Trevor? Yes I agree it will be great to know once it gets registered. Joe brought it on EBay for me, another wonderful surprise a couple of months ago, if I can track down the seller details I will D-Mail you with what I can find out. Would you like me to keep you a pup for down the track when they appear?

Nev that big brom you liked in my Pic 3 from yesterday I brought from the Germaine that we both know and unfortunately she did not know its name, but said the “pet name” she gave it was “Bubble Gum” which I reckon is a perfect pet name for it as it has a lot of pink through it with darker pink spots on it that look like bubbles and whenever I look at the brom it makes me think back to my childhood when I used to luv eating pink bubble gum and the triple bubble I used to be able to blow with nearly a packet of bubble gum in my mouth though lol. If Germaine had shown me more of these for sale that day I would have brought them all because I adored it that much but I think she only had the one so I was over the moon when she told me it was for sale and felt so privileged and appreciated that she was ok to part with it.

Nev that Neo ‘Dunmore Ruby’, you’re creation is absolutely amazing, I could not stop looking at the pictures, what a beautiful brom; I was totally blown away by its glossy bright colour and the wonderful fleck through its leaves. I was so pleased to be able to look it up and see that it was registered by you and that you have given me and others the opportunity to admire something so beautiful. If you could ever see yourself parting with a pup could you keep me in mind as I promise I would cherish it for the rest of my life?

Nev, check out EBay as Neo 'Von Cos' is up for sale from seller 630Rosie, I just checked and this is who Joe got ours from. It has 4 days to go and zero bids. Remember the offer is there to get a pup off me down the track as I know how much you liked it.

Good morning Trish – Its good to see that you at least are still posting. I'm beginning to wonder if it's because of the floods or because of the long winded articles I write that is the cause of no one posting. I'm sorry but once I start talking about brom's I just don't know when to stop, so today I promise I'll keep it very short.

We have our first Bromeliad Society meeting for 2013 today and I have to give a presentation on growing bromeliads from seed, so perhaps I can get all of the talking out of my system this way.

Trish – Thanks for the feedback on Neo. “Bubble Gum” (Pet name) and Neo ‘Von Cos’ and could you please put my name down for a pup from each when you have one. As for Neo 'Dunmore Ruby', at this stage I'm still trying to build up a bit of stock and I still don't know what effects the heat waves and following flooding rain have had on the plants and whether or not I may have lost some, but I'll put your name on the top of the list for the first spare pup.

A few more pic's to finish with. Pic.1 shows the hanging plants now moving out of the shade house into other areas around the yard, Pic.2 shows what can happen when you don't keep a close watch on plants suspended by hangers and how the leaves can become distorted. It's a simple matter to rectify though, you just have to relocate the hanger "arms" and the leaf will take on its natural shape once again. Pic.3 shows another plant which just last week had distorted leaves caused by incorrect positioning of the hangers. The hangers were re-located and a week later the leaves have straightened out again, Pic's.3 and 4 are just another couple of plants in the shade house.

Hi all, I'm just having some funny moments with quit smoking, but this too will pass as long as I persevere. I certainly plan to. I found 1 really sunburnt plant today, it copped full sun for an hour and couldn't take it. It was under 70%shadecloth beige in colour yesterday. I was sorting out my plants to see how many pups there are in need of attention, well I found some and now I know what I have from the pool area, next I move into the bush house area.
Nev I see you liked my decorative pineapple, it is actually a coconut with a tillandsia glued to the top of it. I did it to be different. It is also an economical pot, just pick them up from the beaches and footpaths and wherever else they land
I potted some N clarise and some N the governors plea and put them side by side in a crate and had trouble telling the difference of the juvenile plants. Fortunately I labelled them as I potted each one as in Pic 2. If I remember correctly Clarise is on the left and there are 6 plants
Have a good one
Ian
Pic 1 Vr Kiwi dusk X Sunset
Pic 2 Neo Clarise on left and The Governors Plea on right

And I am pretty sure Nev, that the small number of posts at the moment is NOT due to your long winded articles, as you call them. Everyone appreciates the effort you put into your posts and the information they contain. I know I look forward to reading your posts and I am sure everyone else feels the same.

Trish, your neo Von Cos is also very nice. I will have to try to access eBay and check that one out for myself. I wasn’t able to find your pic of neo Bubblegum but you do have so many really lovely broms.

Had a great day in the garden making room for some more broms, checked on how all of them are going and to see if any more pups need removing but decided to wait a couple of more weeks especially with this heat. Took a good handful in that need to be re-potted in some fresh mix as they are only in river pebble type mix that I am not fond of using aside from the fact that the pots are heavy to move around and harder on the hands. I also did a bit of weeding down one side of the house that has no broms whatsoever (shock horror) because it is the hottest part of the garden that gets the full brunt of the sun for the hottest part of the day. We used to have a veggie patch there a couple of years ago that did well but once summer hit it was just too hot for anything to survive so I have not planted anything there since. I was thinking of heavily shading this area at some stage and putting some of my hardier broms there but I am still mulling this over as not necessary at present.

Nev please don’t change anything about how you communicate with us all through this forum, I remember when I first visited this forum for the first time, what made me want to be part of such a great forum was the fantastic people that were already in it communicating and sharing wonderful information about what they have learnt over the years growing broms and all the wonderful brom pictures everyone posted and I wanted to be a part of that awesome atmosphere because we all straight away shared something in common whether we had only a couple of brom or hundreds of broms. What I have noticed here in Townsville is that unless you are a brom collector people just don’t seem to understand or appreciate the beauty of what we collect and why we are so hooked on them. Most of the people I have met in Townsville so far (aside from maybe 1 or 2) don’t seem to have hobbies or interests other than taking their kids back and forth to sports or dance practice. I just think there is more to life than that. Joe totally gets why I collect bromeliads and I totally get why he collects orchids and life is wonderful, but what makes it even more wonderful is that I have been fortunate enough to meet through this forum some wonderful people that share the same hobby and I would hate to see this change or be lost. So Nev we expect a huge thread tomorrow as I want to know how you’re day went at your first Bromeliad Society meeting for 2013, I always learn so much from these when you come back and fill us in on how the day went and I am sure others would totally agree. And Nev if people don’t like to read anyone’s threads (whether long or short) they can always move on and scroll to the end of the page LOL.

Nev I have written you in my book for a pup of Neo ‘Von Cos’ and Neo ‘Bubble Gum’ (Pet Name). Thanks so much for writing me down for a pup of your beautiful Neo ‘Dunmore Ruby’ whenever you can spare one.

Nev I was interested to see the pics you posted of the broms you hang on hangers and how it’s important to keep an eye on them so their leaves sit to their natural shape and not end up distorted. I do not have any hanging this way yet but was considering doing so after seeing how well all yours are doing and with the added bonus that this will free up more space for me down the track for getting more broms (yeah) or hanging pups this way as they do not take up much room and I would be able to fit quite a few in my half of the nursery LOL. Nev any suggestions on how low I hang them from 70% shade cloth?

Nev what were the last 2 Pics you posted yesterday, you know I am partial to vriesea’s but that neo with the hot pink centre is gorgeous.

Hi Ian how are you traveling without cigs? It sure makes life feel very different for a while but then things will start feeling normal.

I tried having no coffee at work last week, bad mistake as I suffered headaches for two days in a row but by the weekend I was feeling a lot better, I plan to keep off the stuff for as long as I can and just drink water and tea, I don’t mind a cup of chai tea either and have been having this of late lately. One of the things I said I would never give up in life was coffee when I gave up smoking as I said I had to still have something in my life that I enjoyed. I think I will suffer a lot less head aches and migraines by keeping off the stuff as it dehydrates you and with me working where I work I think I should be consuming more water rather than hanging out for a cup of coffee. What I really miss though is that first cup of coffee of the morning when you go Ahh after that first gulp, but I guess its mind over matter and I will get over not having it. The other added benefit of quitting coffee is that I consume less sugar as I used to have 3 in my coffee where I only have 1 ½ in my tea.

Hi Shirley so pleased to hear from you and hear that all is well. Hopefully your internet issues will be over soon, thanks for trying your best to keep in touch it’s so nice to read your voice LOL. Yeah check out Neo ‘Von Cos’ on EBay, the one we got from the seller was a good sized plant in great nick and I went WOW when it came in the mail. I have it on watch list because I really want to see what it goes for this time around to see if it ends up more or less than what Joe paid.

Time for a cuppa tea :(

Hi to anyone else looking in or on the Sick List.

Take care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 – Nev as promised pic of Paper Bark Tree’s in Wetlands behind our property. There are rows and rows of these along the wetlands.
Pic 2 – Vriesea in garden – forgot its name, will have to check tomorrow?
Pic 3 – Check-out the flying object on right-hand-side of the plastic container that has water in it, no it’s not Superman LOL.
Pic 4 – Lucy trying to cool off her jets.
Pic 5 – Neo ‘Bob & Grace’

Hello everyone. I am back again to confess I bought more...
I will get pics when they arrive.
I bought a nidularium regelioides and a neo Hawaiian Sunset.
Just to start the new month off, I then had to buy another nidularium. This one I remembered seeing on here. Nidularium Ruby Lee variegated.
I have a plain Ruby Lee which I like, so now have a pair.
While wandering around in the brom pages on eBay, I saw some lovely vrieseas from the same seller I ha dthe 3 I posted back a week or so ago. I just had to look up all the parents of these pretty offspring. I missed out on getting vr. Milky Way, so the next best thing was to bid on a plant with that one as a parent.
I won and now have a lovely plant coming ..poelmanii Whiteline x Milky Way.

I am looking at how I can convert the old orchid house to fit in more broms. It has an alsinite roof that was to keep the rain off the orchids which are no longer in there, They ddint like it much.
The broms seem to do well in there though.

A question... the alisinite roof is like clear plastic but is supposed to stop UV . I thought it much too bright with the sun on plants so put up some shadecloth inside, under the roof.

If I take it down to lighten the area, do you think the broms will burn . It gets afternoon sun all year.
Maybe I could try some of the beige shadecloth which lets more light in .

I want to use the space under the roof to hang broms as it is a bit higher than the other half of the large shadehouse.

I am thinking of moving all the other broms from the greenhouse and just keeping the vrieseas by themselves.

Are the vrieseas better off in the greenhouse or down in the shadehouse ?
I am trying to arrange them all in places where they will thrive.
I will take a pic of the area I am talking about so you can see how it looks.

Love all your pics and I second Trish's comment re learning from Nev and others. I love reading all the long informative posts.
Jean.

Hi everyone – First of all thanks Shirley and Trish for your encouragement about my sometimes “stretched out” posts. Maybe I was reading more into it than was there, but it just seemed that whenever I sent in a long post, other members seemed to stop posting and I though that maybe they though I was taking up too much Forum space and I didn't want to get “off side” with anyone as I enjoy this forum so much, so today I'll test out that theory..

Ian – I was once told by a “chest specialist” when I was first told to give up smoking, that any time I had “withdrawal symptoms” (and that's what it sounds like you describe as “some funny moments”), to drink a large glass of ice cold water, “cold enough to make your teeth ache” was how he described it. He said that at that time the Seven Day Adventist Church had a very successful Non-Smoking campaign going for those who genuinely wanted to quit and this was what it was all based on...Ice cold water. I did try it a few times during some of my initial attempts to quit and it did help a bit, so maybe it could help you through this period; I don't know for sure as we are all different and our bodies have different needs and respond to different things in different ways, but it's certainly an inexpensive thing to try out.

I did like your decorative container and was just curious as to what it was made from. It seems hard to imagine for us southerners that these things just fall from the palm trees and God help anyone standing below; maybe all of you northerners in coconut palm areas should take to wearing “safety hats” when ever you go anywhere near them so as to save you from brain damage from falling coconuts. I guess your little decorative container is just another example of how inventive brom. growers really are at recycling articles that would otherwise be binned.

I have to agree that all of the pups in your tray do look very much alike and I certainly can't tell the difference and I can't help thinking how much like Neo. 'Hannibal Lector' they all look at this stage also, but maybe it's when they are mature that the difference is more evident in the size variation of the different plants.

It will be interesting to see what colours turn up in your Vr. 'Kiwi Dusk' x Vr. 'Sunset' when it's mature so we will all wait for another pic when this happens. If it follows the rule of “Seed parent influences shape and size and pollen parent influences the colour", the colours that could be inherited from Sunset are quite amazing.

Shirley – You have my sympathy with your “sooo slow” internet coverage. I remember when we first got the internet connection it was on “dial up” and there was nothing more frustrating ,as it was also very very slow.

I've checked out E bay Australia this morning and Neo ‘Von Cos’ still has no bids against it and the time left when I checked was 3d 15h. I don't buy plants off Ebay myself as I prefer to swap with other growers when ever possible so if you want to bid on it at least you won't have me bidding against you.

Hopefully you'll get your internet back to normal soon and we will see some more pic's from you.

Trish – Your question, “ any suggestions on how low I hang them from 70% shade cloth? “ depends on what sort of framework supports your shade cloth. I have different sorts of suspension points in my collection; I have screws or flat headed nails in the overhead timber rafters of timber frame construction, I have “self tapping screws” as suspension points in overhead pipe work as well as off cuts of “weld mesh” attached to overhead timbers which gives me the choice of more or less adjustable spacing from which I can hang my plants. Some growers use barbed wire stretched between both ends of their structure to suspend their plants from; there are many ways available and I'll take some pic's today of what I do to “more easily” explain what I'm trying to describe in words.

The two pic's you ask about are firstly Vr. 'Kiwi Sunset' which is just starting to colour up and the other is Neo. 'Lila' which has finished flowering and starting to pup. Because of this it's losing some of its colour.

Thanks for the pic of the “Paper Barks” in the wetlands, I really like it very much; so much in fact I would like you to email it to me so I can enlarge it (without the Dave's Garden copyright in the corner) and put it in a frame. splinter1804@gmail.com Judging by the “flying saucer” on the right of pic 3 it seems Lucy is very keen to get into the water as quickly as she can.

Our first meeting of the year seemed to go off OK with me standing in as Vice President as our President is on holidays in Thailand and I imagine, looking at all of the exquisite brom's over there. My presentation on growing brom';s from seed was well received and I suspect by all the questions after the talk, we will have a few more “seed growers” in the near future.

In view of all the abnormal weather we have been having, we also had an impromptu Q&A session about what steps can be taken to prepare plants for conditions such as these, and what we can do “after the event” to help plants overcome their stress. It was very interesting and the general finding from what has happened to various growers was pretty much the same.

To sum up what came out of the discussion was that if your plants have been adequately fertilised on a regular basis before hand, they withstand the abnormal conditions much better than those who haven't. Also the benefits of “deep watering” rather than just the occasional “squirt” with a hose was very apparent as the plants were less likely to suffer dehydration. There was also a pretty unanimous outcome with many growers singing the praises of “Seasol” as an added extra to the fertilising and the good results they are sure they got from using it.

Plant damage was surprisingly low given the extreme conditions, and mainly confined to plants that hadn't been watered or fertilised on a regular basis, and of course those that weren't afforded any extra protection from the burning over head sun. One grower in particular said he saved his entire vegetable garden by simply throwing 1.8 meter squares of 75% green shade cloth over everything, probably a very simple and common sense approach and so basic that a lot of people never even thought about doing it. We can all learn from our mistakes, so let's all be prepared for the next “100 year heat wave”!

To finish up today I thought I would add a little article I wrote a while back about what a great difference fertiliser made to my small collection of Guzmanias.

~ HOW I IMPROVED MY GUZMANIAS ~
Neville Wood – 2009

Up until recently I had about six or more Guzmanias in my shade house which I had accumulated over a few years having previously purchased them in flower at markets. I really never saw myself as a Guzmania grower, but thought of them more as a substitute for a bunch of flowers to brighten up the inside of the home. When you consider that a reasonable bunch of flowers costs a minimum of $30 these days, and any I’ve ever bought seldom lasted more than a week; a flowering Guzmania which could be bought for around $20 and often lasted in flower for 2-3 months was a much better financial proposition, don’t you think?

After they had finished flowering and the old inflorescence was removed, they were relegated to an unused corner of the shade-house and allowed to just do “their own thing”, as I really didn’t have much interest in them as a plant. They were never fed and only watered when I watered the other brom’s. They continued to grow and occasionally would put up a pretty ordinary looking inflorescence which was never anywhere near as spectacular as the one on the original plant had been. I simply put this down to a couple of things, either I just couldn’t grow them or my conditions didn’t suit them or maybe it was a combination of both.

A couple of years back I read an article in (I think) a back issue of a BSI journal. It was by a Guzmania grower in the US and gave details of his methods of culture and included a picture of him standing up to his waist in the centre of a group of beautiful flowering Guzmanias. These beautiful plants were the best looking Guzmanias I had ever seen with their healthy green leaves and beautiful large inflorescences. What he said was basically, never let them dry out completely, grow them in lower light to Neo's, Aechmeas etc, give them a warm environment with good air circulation, and the bit that really caught my attention, FEED THEM AS OFTEN AS YOU FEED YOURSELF! This man only grew Guzmanias and was known by local growers as somewhat of an expert with a nickname of "Mr. Guzmania".

Until I read that article I treated my few Guzmanias in a similar manner to my Neo's. The plants never really looked "happy" and I only ever got the occasional inflorescence of average quality. My success was such that I threatened to toss the plants out if they didn't perform better the following year. The plants were moved to another area on the southern, shadier side of our house beneath 75% green shade cloth. This area is in a higher part of the yard and is protected from winds by the house on the north side and re-cycled charcoal coloured Laser Light on the walls of the other three sides. Because it is so protected from the elements and is a bit higher than their previous location it also appears to be slightly warmer in the cold weather.

After being moved to their new location, all were re-potted using a mix of six parts of Brunnings Cymbidium Orchid Mix to one part of fine Coco Peat. During re-potting when the pot was about 3/4 full of mix, I added Osmocote at the rate of 1 level teaspoon to a 5" pot, plus some Blood and Bone at the same rate, making sure the fertilizers didn’t directly contact any part of the plants. Sufficient mix was then added to come up almost to the top of the pot and they were then thoroughly watered until the water flowed from the bottom of the pot.

I foliar fed these plants each two weeks, alternating between Manutec and Phostrogen right throughout the whole year along with a monthly application of Seasol. The results were amazing; the plants picked up and grew beautifully and this year I had a better show of flowers than I could have ever imagined. There's only two things which could have caused such a dramatic improvement; and that was the new location with extra fertilizer or the threat to "bin them" if they didn't perform better. As I don't think the Guzmanias heard the threat “to bin them”, I think it had to be the change of location and the increase in feeding.

A few pic's to finish with now and once again are random file pic's of my own plants taken at various times. Pic.1 is Neo 'Gee Whiz' in the garden and just starting to colour, Pic.2 is Neo. 'Apricot Nectar' in full colour, Pic's 3 and 4 show Bill. Hallelujah grown in low light and high light; and for some reason known only to me I personally liked the one in low light that particular year so I decided to show them both. The judges however didn't agree with my choice and awarded the plant grown in low light 2nd place and the high light grown plant 1st., Pic.4 is Neo . 'Blushing Tiger'

Nev we love your long posts, if you have something to say please say it we love reading your comments and advise.
pic 1. My front garden broms which are sitting on my front step in this photo during the flood. 2. waters gone back to down the paddock now and im repotting my broms as i put them back down in my garden.

Hi all,I went through some more plants to find more pups, now they are in the pool area where I can give them a bit more attention and are handy for potting up when ready. Where am I going to put them will be the next problem.
I cleaned my seed raising trays today and know that I have some more seeds to harvest soon. I know where they are but cannot remember their names. If I look at the label I will know, so no problem.
The funny moments that I am having are when I want to do something but don't know what to do at the moment. That used to be a smoke time while I made up my mind. Also if I find something frustrating then a smoke used to relieve the moment, now I have to find an alternative. I haven't reached out for them as yet, so far so good.Usually I'm not a quitter, but in this case I might do well to be.
I had a look around on ebay and put a couple of bids on. I didn't see Neo Von Cos but did see a phillipa coberg and another that I don't remember. It was georgeous until i saw the starting bid...$310.00+ Someone will buy it if they want it enough and can afford it.
Time for my bed, it's calling me.No pics tonight.
Have a good one
Ian

I spent most of the day today placing hangers on the pots of my smaller broms and hanging them from the pipe framework of the shade house to make room for my recent brom purchases. I had thought it would have freed up a lot more space than it did. I will move some more but have to get more hangers first. I also put a few out into the gardens, but still in pots so I can move them around. I will post some pics later in the week.

Trish, I know what you mean about that first cup of coffee in the morning when you go Ahhh after that first gulp. That is one thing I don’t think I would ever give up. I have cut back on my coffee consumption and now drink a lot more tea than I used to. We buy caffeine free teabags so they shouldn’t be as bad.

I don’t have sugar in either tea or coffee but Michael does and he recently switched to a sugar substitute which he is happy to use, it’s called Natvia and looks like refined white sugar but is made from the stevia bush. Don’t know much about it but it is supposed to be a ‘natural’ sweetener and contains next to no kilojoules.

Jean, congratulations on your latest eBay wins. I think vr Milky Way is one of the nicest there is, I love it but it is still very pricey and way above my budget, but one of these days !!!

Nev, we had dial up internet initially, then we got ADSL but had lots of trouble with both as we get water in our phone line repeatedly … the phone crackles terribly and the internet used to drop out completely every time it rained. It would take a week for Telstra to come out and do a bandaid job which would last until the next shower of rain, then here we go again.

We now have wireless and when we first got it, it worked very well but since Telstra moved to 4G the service has been really crappy. They claim our modem is switching between 2 towers and we lose service every time it switches and of course, they are unable to do anything to fix it. Since there is only the one tower in the area, this would have to be a cop out but we are sick and tired of bashing our heads against the Telstra brick wall. Anyway, now that I’ve had my whinge I’ll get back to broms.

Hi everyone – Well the weekend's over and it's the start of another week and getting closer to Easter, when who knows? the Easter Bunny might bring some of us a brom. or two as an Easter gift.

Breeindy – It's good to see the flood waters receding once more along with the threat of flooding to your home. I like the look of your planter boxes; what a great idea for a garden which also acts as your back fence.

Ian – You think you have a problem working out where you are going to put a few pups; just wait until all of the seedlings start to get a bit of size, then your accommodation problems really start, I know 'cause I've been there and done that (and am still doing it) so welcome to the world of brom. seed raising.

Ian, we all have those moments you speak about and it's not necessarily to do with quitting smoking; I think a lot of it is to do with us getting older.

You mention seeing a plant of Vr. Phillipo-Cobergii on Ebay; this is a very popular and pretty spectacular plant and a little trick I found with it down here in our climate, is that it will continue to produce pups as long as you continue to remove them, however in doing so this will delay it from flowering. Down here it likes to clump up and then it will flower and once again start producing more pups. I have a reasonable size clump in my back yard with three nice flower spikes on it now, but until I found out about letting them “clump up” I had already taken off five or six pups with no sign of flowering. Unfortunately just when it was going to look pretty special it got burnt badly in the recent heart wave because it had no overhead protection, but the pups will be OK.

As for the other plant with the $310 price tag you speak of, well it's probably a first released pup of a reasonably "special" new hybrid. These are usually just a “one off” and until it's been around for a while when more pups are grown and then the prices will come down. It's all a matter of supply and demand, so if it's new, rare and good quality and you want it, I guess it's a case of “take it or leave it” and at that price I'm afraid I'd have to leave it.

Shirley – I know exactly what you're saying about that first cup of coffee as I've just finished mine; it really gets you started in the mornings. I think it's just a case of everything in moderation and this is the only time I drink it, the rest of the time it's usually just water or black tea for me.

You mentioned Vr. 'Milky Way'; this is another of Jack Konings great hybrids and was a result of using Vr. Gigantea 'White Centre' as the seed parent and Vr. 'Fosteriana' as the pollen parent. It has also proved to be an exceptional parent itself and a good example of this is the Vr. “Aussie Beauty” series, see:http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?fields=&id=8382&search=milky%20way

By the way, you've done a nice job of growing your Neo. 'Raphael', it's a nice plant and one I like a lot, but I can't get mine to look as good as yours. Just out of curiosity, how wide does it grow up there? Down here it only seems to get to about an eight inch diameter.

As for hanging your plants; the more plants you hang, the more you'll find different ways of hanging them. Following Trish's question yesterday on how she should hang her plants and following my answer to her, I've taken a few pic's of the different ways I hang mine as promised and they are shown below. As you will see, a lot of the methods I use incorporate the use of re-cycled materials wherever I can, but the end result seems to work OK for me.

Now for a few pic's of different ways I hang my plants, first there's the most basic of all methods, (Pic.1) just a nail or a screw into the overhead timber with sufficient distance in between to prevent the leaves from the plants from damaging each other and hook the hanger directly on this, I then put a second nail in between each of the first lot of nails and by making a wire extension with a hook on each end, I can hang another row of plants below the first lot. (I cover the wire with thin black plastic tubing so the wire doesn't cut the leaves when the plants move during the wind).

By making more of these extension hooks (Pic.2), plants can be hung from each of the pots immediately above them above them from this point on (usually about three rows) The rim of the pot probably won't support any more weight if more then three rows are used. Pic.3 is another method utilising an off cut of some weld mesh fence panels. The advantage of this method is that you are not confined to just the one point and also you can hang pots of different widths as there are more suspension points available and the pots can be hung from the most convenient location.

If you want to hang a row from each side of the timber rafter, you can bend the mesh so that once attached, it will project out from the timber on each side leaving enough space between the two rows of plants (Pic.4). Depending on what you have available, if the mesh isn't sufficiently wide enough to make bent sections for each side of the rafter you can simply just use a flat piece of mesh attached to the underside of the rafter and hang plants from each side of this. Pic.5 .

Hi again - To continue on from the last lot of pic's, Pic1 shows another method of providing suspension point from re-cycled material; in this case I managed to obtain a lot of small pieces of steel bar from the scrap bin at the Light Rail Museum where I am a member, these conveniently had holes drilled in each end.

By screwing these to the underside of the roof timbers I created another lot of successful suspension points where I could hook the hanger into the hole on the end of the bar. In this case it's also possible to hang plants three rows wide by combining this method with the method of the nails in the timber shown in the first picture in the previous post.

Once again the wire extensions can be used to add extra rows of plants (Pic 2) in this case creating an area three deep and three wide, but you do need substantial roof timbers to take the extra weight and in this case they are 3”x 2” hardwood rafters.

If the framework is made of pipe, it's really a similar process except that you have to first drill the pipe and use “self tapping”screws instead of nails (Pic.3).

Other things that are often handy are old wire coat hangers; if you need to extend the length of the “drop” from the suspension point, simply hold the hanger hook in one hand and the centre of the base of the hanger in the other hand and pull firmly apart .You can then put the hook over the suspension point and hang your pot from the bottom of the coat hanger (Pic.4).

With plants of smaller size you can also double the amount you can hang by bending each end of the coat hanger and hooking a pot hanger over each end (Pic.5), but they need to be of equal weight otherwise it becomes a "juggling act".

The different methods of suspending plants are endless and the above ideas are just a few that I use and know to work and I'm sure you will all be able to think of many other different methods.

I love seeing all the pics.
Nev, I am so glad someone else has spider webs too.
I know the little spideys are doing good but I do have to kill the black squishy ones that get under the pots and benches.

I will try your method of putting the plants along the timber beams.
I wish I could hang in my greenhouse as there is all that wasted roof space.
Its only a cheapie though, with light metal frame that would bend at the sniff of a pot going near it.

Yes that raised garden bed is my back fence Nev and just paddocks behind. My Broms dont go in there, they were just up there out of the flood water. Its a vegetable garden that was finished not long ago and i dont have anything planted in it yet. My partner is digging in a few taps so im waiting for that before i start.
All your hanging broms look great Nev.
Ive neally finished repotting and putting all my broms back down in there garden (pic to come).
Time for a feb. thread...

Hello to all my brom friends... I am still with you good folks and enjoy reading your posts, seeing your photos and learning much.

I don't get much of a chance to post lately. After I last posted, I got called out of state for a funeral and came back home with the flu which kept me out of sorts for almost a month. In addition, I've been chasing my tail in circles at work lately.

Afraid my plants are being neglected as well. I don't recall who, but someone here had asked about activity on the Bromeliad forum and I will have to say no, it is pretty quiet there. I learn far more from all of you here.

I want to join in on congratulations to Ian for quitting smoking. It seems most of us have done so and will encourage anyone who wishes to join us. I am sure you hate to hear it over and over but hang in there. You will be doing yourself a favor but most importantly, your new grandbaby as well. Best wishes with your success!

My thoughts are with all of you that are dealing with floods, extreme temperatures and health issues. And Nev, I never mind reading your posts regardless of length. There is so much to learn from all of you.

My question this time is... when one moves a plant to different lighting, how long does it take to attain its' best color in that location?

A couple of photos from my meager collection. The first is Cryptanthus Cascade. It sends out runners and develops plants on the runners which is a bit unusual for Cryptanthus.

The second is a fairly new acquisition. Marketed as Vriesea fenestralis. Thanks all for your posts and knowledge, Kristi

Hi all, Well it is just another hot day and not smoking is not too bad. The first week is over and yes I still think about them, but do not desire them. I have 2 smokers at home and 2 smokers at work and everywhere I go there will be smokers. So the least changes for me the better. Thanks all for the encouragement.
I hung another piece of shadecloth today in a temporary fashion just to protect some of my plants. It is temp as I plan on building more covered area to protect my plants. Some will be in gardens and others either on walls or on trees. Maybe others will be on shelves or on totems. It will be a steel structure with a lot of mesh of different sizes.
I will be using barbed wire in some locations to hang some plants from. It could also attach itself to the shadecloth if not spaced far enough away. At the moment tghe walls of my bush house are not strong enough to hold any more hangers but that will be rectified with the new construction. Another positive from quit smoking wil be to finance this.
Nev I like your hanging methods and I put up some more, just for more ideas.
Have a good one
Ian

Nev, talking about Easter … already the shops are full of chocolate bunnies, easter eggs and hot cross buns. How is anyone supposed to stick to a diet under this sort of exposure to chocolate and yummy buns.

Nev, the neo Raphael in my pic last night is a bit over 40 cm, so that’s about double the diameter of yours. Thanks for all the great info on your different methods of hanging plants. How many pots do you hang off the pot above and does the weight of the plants below ever pull the hangers off the pots.

Jean, have your new vrieseas arrived yet … waiting to see the pics.

Kristi, good to hear from you. Hope you are over your flu and feeling much better now.

Ian, there is a beautiful vriesea Snowman pup on eBay, it is stunning, and only $200.00 :o) There is also a vriesea Crackerjack pup for $125.00. If anyone is feeling particularly generous, either one will do me as an easter gift LOL. Ian, if you put aside the money you used to spend on cigarettes you could buy yourself some ‘really special’ broms as a reward for giving up the smokes.

Bree, those are lovely pics you posted, especially neo Concentrica x albo marg, very nice. Not sure if the vriesea is Dillings Black Beauty but it is a lovely colour, whatever it is.

I will attempt to start a new thread for February tomorrow, it’s a bit late to start now.

Hi everyone – It's great to see more posts appearing at last, still a few members to come but I'm sure they will be back as soon as they get over their problems with all of the recent rain and flooding. It's much cooler here this morning and it's just starting to “drizzle” rain so it looks like more potting up of small seedlings in the garage for me today.

Jean – I'm pleased you liked the pic's, and as for the cobwebs, well I wouldn't like to be without the littler spiders as they keep many of the destructive insects away from my plants and as they are non-venomous to humans. I don't see a problem, “live and let live” is the rule I follow.

You say you wish you could hang plants in your green house but can't because it's not strong enough. Have you thought about trying to construct a stronger timber frame inside your green house? If this is possible you will then have extra space to hang more plants; probably worth investigating to see if it's possible anyway.

Breeindy – As you say, it's time for a new Feb. thread so I hope someone can help as I have no idea of what to do.

I love the look of the Neo. Concentrica x albomarginata, it has great and typical Neo. Concentrica markings and perfectly grown in what must be the exact amount of light; a great looking nicely coloured and shaped plant.

Bree, the plant in your second pic is called Neo 'Gympie Delight' (There's no “s” on the Gympie). It a nice little plant which was bred by Margaret Patterson who I believe comes from Gympie and has registered no less than 45 other of her hybrids under the Gympie name.

I'm sorry but I can't confirm that the name of your Vriesea is Fosteriana 'Dillings Black Beauty', but whatever it's called, it's pretty easy on the eye's and I wish I had one in my little lot.

Kristi – Nice to hear from you once again; I'm sorry to hear you've been unwell with the flu and I'm sure many of the members here understand just how much it can “knock you around”.

Your question on moving a plant to different lighting is a bit more complex than one would think, as there are quite a few factors that have to be considered. Firstly, it's never a good idea to move a plant into bright light during the summer when light is at its peak, this is when burning can occur if the plant has previously been growing in a low light area. As a general rule plants should ideally be re-located in the winter and autumn months when the heat of the sun is less intense. This way the plants have time to gradually acclimatise to their new surroundings without the threat of getting sunburned.

As for how long it takes for a plant to gain it's best colour after being moved, this question too has different things to consider. Firstly you have to consider the climate, but more importantly what the plant is; is it a Neoregelia, Vriesea, Cryptanthus or some other type. As all these things have an effect on the outcome, I can only comment on what happens in my area where I mainly grow Neoregelias.

After my Neoregelias have been re-potted, I usually put them on the floor of the Vriesea and Guzmania shade house to give them a chance to settle down and recover after the stress of re-potting. This is an area which has much lower available light than where they normally grow and usually within a couple of weeks I can see the colour starting to fade, and usually after a month the colour is just a hint of its former glory. Although it only takes a month for the colour to fade, when they are returned to the usual growing area which is more brightly lit, the reverse action takes a lot longer; sometimes three to six months and in some cases the full colour doesn't return to its former glory at all and you have to wait until you get pups for the cycle to re-start. As I say I can only speak about Neo's grown in my area and some of our other members may have different experiences they can relate to you.

Your Cryptanthus 'Cascade' is a plant with a very interesting growth habit, I didn't know that it produced pups on the actual runners, but having grown brom's for quite a while now nothing surprises me any more.

Your Vriesea is a nice plant with some quite unusual markings and without seeing a pic of the whole plant it's hard to say if it's actually a Vr. Fenestralis as all of the Vr. Fenestralis plants I have seen have recurved leaves and your plant doesn't appear to have these. It could however be a hybrid from Vr. Fenestralis in which case anything is possible. Your plant also seems to have very pronounced spotting beneath the leaves which although I've seen it on others of this kind, it always is much fainter in colour.

To give a better idea of what I'm trying to say, go to the F.C.B.S. Photo Index at: http://fcbs.org/pictures.htm , and have a look at the pic's of a few different Vr Fenestralis plants there.

Ian – I've been looking at some of your pic's in an enlarged version and must ask if you have shares in a "Wire Mesh Manufacturing Company" as you seem to have heaps of this used in the construction of your “brom houses”. I only wish I had access to plenty of it down here, but then I'd need to win the Lotto to be able to afford it anyway.

I especially like the idea of the mesh on the roof of your shade house, so many different points from which to hang plants, makes the mind “boggle”.

Shirley – Thanks for the feedback on the dimensions of your Neo 'Raphael', I had always though from the pic's I had seen in the past that it was a bigger plant and that maybe I wasn't growing it to its full potential but from what you say it seems that's as big as it gets.

I don't even look at the plants on Ebay with prices you mention as I'll never be able to afford them so why torture myself?

It's good to hear that you're going to start a new thread for us, if you were waiting for me to do it you would all be old and grey by the time I managed it.

I like the pic's of your Bill's; it's about time we had a few more Bill's on here as we haven't had any for a while, I think the last time was the nice plant of Bill, 'Gerda' which Sue posted and which she said came originally from Jean.

Bill. Sanderiana is an attractive plant with the very pale mauve underneath the leaves which is set off nicely by the contrasting black spines on the leaf edges; however the bonus comes when it flowers and although the flowering time is brief, the colour combination of the flowers make it a worthwhile plant which should be in all collections.

I'll finish with a few more pic's, a bit different today with the Pic's 1-3 to show Ian and anyone else who's interested, in a handy little easy to make pot hanger suitable for hanging pots on mesh shelves like this, or on vertical sheets of mesh. Pic. 4 shows what happens when you don't thin out your seedlings when they first need doing and Pic.5 shows some baby seedlings which should produce some good quality small/medium sized Neoregelias in the future.